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quote:

Remember $2000 of the $2250 the teachers are already receiving via annual outlay.


Well, $250 raise and avoidance of a $2000 pay cut then.
quote:

What would the district be “up” here?

The district is trading one set of expenses for a like value second set of expenses. But they are not getting more teachers, or more buildings, etc.


Higher-paid teachers.
quote:

I am claiming the reduction in UAL assessment is close to equal to the bonus payments that the districts will now be responsible for.


I think that is basically true, but in regard to an earlier statement you made, that would not be 'neutral."

Yes, the school systems would have to pay teachers more, but that is because the state is paying down the debt. In other words, the school systems GET to pay teachers more.

An analogy: If a rich uncle gives you $50k but says you have to spend it on buying a car, it is true that the required expense will match the gift. However, you are up a car. So it's not neutral in my eyes.
The savings must be used for a pay raise, BUT:
1. If there isn’t enough savings the state will make up the gap. This will mostly happen with charter schools.
2. If the savings are more than the cost of a pay raise, the school districts can use the savings for other things.

re: Serious political thought

Posted by BigJim on 5/18/26 at 9:53 am to
True, but you are leaving out the fact that even those payments don’t cover the cost of government. Thus our obscene debt.

And while the military costs a lot, medicare and Medicaid cost more. Not to mention SSI, but that’s a whole different issue.

re: Closed Primaries

Posted by BigJim on 5/18/26 at 9:49 am to
Closed primaries don’t apply to local elections. Or most elections for that matter.

It’s just us senate, us house, psc, Supreme Court, and BESE.
Weird that the barrier to a recall election is so high.

I wonder who developed that system…
It is shocking how people not only got it wrong, they got it BACKWARDS!!!

The amendment would not rob the retirement fund, it would have added to the fund. That would result in annual savings of hundreds of millions in interest because the system would have less debt.


:banghead:
Yes, but that was only one of several factors.

re: What’s next for St George?

Posted by BigJim on 5/16/26 at 10:19 pm to
My quick suggestion:

Set up a series of State charter, charter schools.

Independent of EBR and probably get you a lot of what you wanted.

Again, just thunck it up now so a grain of salt and all that.
Ah OK. We both want it gone.
So you are against local parishes voting to lower their taxes???
"directly affecting"

The purpose behind the language is so the state as a whole doesn't screw over particular parishes.

Example, everyone decides to force Bossier Parish to pay higher taxes that the rest of state doesn't have to pay.

quote:

Since this amendment if passed would trigger a reconfiguration of the MFP calculation, that means it would affect THE ENTIRE 64 PARISHES, as well as the other municipal school systems which is a lot more than "not more than five parishes" and even more than "not more than five municipalities". Did I read this correctly? Does this mean the multilevel victory is not necessary?


Affects is not the same as directly affects. The amendment specifically names St. George. Under your interpretation, there would never be a local vote requirement because arguably everything "affects" the other parish in someway.

But specific to the MFP, this really won't affect other parishes. Their amount won't change because of this amendment one way or another.
quote:

Charles Keenan took a cheap shot at Fleming.



Who is Charles Keenan?

re: Question on teacher pay raise

Posted by BigJim on 5/13/26 at 1:51 pm to
quote:

Also she said the money for the raise is coming from the Teacher’s Retirement System.

If that is true it doesn’t sound like it is a prudent plan.


quote:

They want to raid the fund and are dangling this raise as a carrot to get them to bite.

They've been trying to get their hands on the Retirement Fund for years.


Both of these are absolutely wrong.

The Teacher's Retirement system is about $7 billion in debt (liabilities in excess of funding). The two billion from the liquidated funds would be ADDED to the retirement system. The retirement system is NOT being raided. It actually adds to the sustainability of the retirement system.

Since retirement debt will be lower, the school systems will owe less to the retirement system. Similar to how when you pay down your credit card debt, your monthly note is less.

Those savings will pay for the raises.

Now I am not trying to change your mind on how you vote. There are a lot of considerations.

But at least get the facts right.
quote:

The whole LA inventory tax system needs to be nuked. It's just a completely unnecessary bureaucratic circle jerk. Any tax you pay to a municipality just gets credited on your LA income tax return so you effectively pay nothing. Other than the fact that it is nonrefundable for corps, it is just a way to that the state indirectly fund local governments. The businesses are just middle men and have to fill out the paperwork. Why not just have the state directly subsidize local jurisdictions instead of putting businesses in the middle of a bunch of red tape?

And Local governments will absolutely not get rid of inventory taxes even if given the option because 1) all business owners know they will just get it back so they care little about it 2) and it is basically free funding from the state and the municipality gets to basically write their own check.


Starting next year, the credit will be eliminated for C-corps that pay the vast majority of the tax on inventory. You might be right for smaller businesses.
quote:

Yes, I am happy if it stops companies from offshoring to India.


So your idea is that crushing the Indian economy will make cheap labor go away???
quote:

When the OT polices its threads better than La. polices its Constitutional Amendment proposals, you are out of control.

:lol:


quote:

Good gracious, Louisiana, get control of your State Constitution. Kindly confine it to a simple document similar to the US Constitution, instead of a grab-bag of every bad and good idea that crosses the mind of some interest group in the State.


A major overhaul was proposed last year. It was crushed at the ballot.
quote:

It’s Letlow mostly


Which means Landry. Landry and Fleming hate each other. Letlow is the proxy.