Should LA help struggling cities and towns?

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quote:

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The state’s own fiscal troubles have gotten in the way of hiring specialists to swoop into financially troubled towns, push aside local elected officials and unilaterally fix the municipality’s finances.

Courts, at the request of state government, appoint financial administrators and give them despotic powers to hire and fire at will, set fees, reorganize departments and do whatever needs to be done to balance budgets and return fiscal order to local governments. But state legislators haven’t put any money into the account that pays these financial whizzes, instead have chosen to spend the capital elsewhere during the past decade or so the state has struggled with its own budget problem

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I feel like this is, yet another, example of the heavy handedness / central control from the Capitol in Baton Rouge screwing things up.

Rather than the state having to come in and fix these financial problems, the state needs to pull back some of their control of local governments. Allow local governments more leeway in setting tax rates, let them control more of their own spending, etc.

Also, while I am the first person to believe in the right of self-governance, that only is if the city/town/village can afford it. Maybe some of these tiny municipalities need to just go under, and become unincorporated parts of the parish they are located in. If they can't cut spending / raise enough money to actually run things, then they shouldn't do that. I'm sure these small tiny places cause an overall increase in government expenses, than if they were just unincorporated.