The Tax Foundation, an independent national tax policy organization, recently released a new report on individual income taxes. Its study found that Louisiana’s top income tax rate is higher than what you see in most of the southern and regional states we compete with for jobs. That doesn’t sound encouraging, but as is often the case, there’s more to that story than meets the eye, and it’s something we can fix.
COVID-19 has created a public health and economic challenge in 2020 the likes of which has not been experienced in the United States in over 100 years. Louisiana government’s response to help meet this historic challenge will unfold in phases including an immediate term (May through June) period during which the Louisiana Legislature and the Administration must enact legislation and state and local agencies must adopt policies required to responsibly start the new state fiscal year that begins July 1, 2020.
During the 2019 election cycle, the RESET Coalition developed a set of strategic priorities to improve Louisiana’s long-term outlook in Education, State Finances, Criminal Justice/Public Safety, and Transportation Infrastructure. Given the COVID-19 challenge we currently face, RESET has developed the following priority recommendations for the immediate term.
The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR) is presenting an analysis of state trendlines related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on publicly available data, PAR’s statewide and regional 14-day trendlines are similar to the models used by the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) to determine the spread of the disease. The LDH trendlines form a basis for the Governor’s decisions about reopening the state and lifting the stay-at-home order.
When the Louisiana Legislature reenters its 2020 session, it will be faced with unprecedented challenges brought by the coronavirus crisis. Time will be short. Procedures will change for health reasons. Revenue streams have been drying up and timely data for the current fiscal year will be lacking. The forecast for next year’s state revenue will be a grand guessing game with a dark downside. The governor’s earlier proposed budget is by now outdated because of the demands for the state to respond to the pandemic.
BY BARRY ERWIN | JAN 10, 2020 - 6:00 PM
Over the last 24 years, the state has had only three Superintendents of Education: Cecil Picard, Paul Pastorek, and John White. Now with White announcing that he is stepping down, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education has a major decision to make about who his successor will be.
Across the country, education superintendents come and go, almost like revolving doors. That Louisiana has had only three superintendents in more than two decades is highly unusual. And the fact that their leadership has set Louisiana on a consistent path of reform and educational improvement is something we must strive to continue.
The areas where we have made bold changes are almost too many to mention. But they include strong school accountability, greater transparency for parents and taxpayers, major improvements in early education, continuing expansion of high-quality charter schools, higher academic standards, better teacher preparation, and a much stronger focus on equity to ensure that all children have opportunities to succeed.
More importantly, we have seen positive results from these policies. Test scores have shown long-term improvement even as we have increased student expectations. Louisiana’s growth in student performance over the last decade places us among the top ten states nationally. And we have more students graduating, more going to college, and more earning TOPS scholarships than ever before.
While we must admit that challenges remain, we cannot deny the progress that we have made. And we have to recognize that this has happened because we had a continuity of leadership in our state superintendents who not only helped chart a course for Louisiana, but were committed to staying the course even in the midst of political opposition that too often put power and money ahead of students and families.
There are those who would prefer to take us back to the old days when there was less accountability, fewer choices for parents, lower expectations for students, and the belief that some kids — just because of their circumstances in life — could not learn. In a world where education is the vital ticket to prosperity for our people and our state, we cannot allow that to happen.
Maintaining continuity in public policies is difficult. Politicians, administrations, and personnel change all too frequently. But Louisiana has enjoyed a rare period of continuity in education policy, it has paid off in significant dividends for our students, and we should strive to maintain the momentum we have achieved.
Barry Erwin
president, Council for a Better Louisiana
Baton Rouge
Greg Hilburn Updated 2:59 p.m. CT Jan. 9, 2020
Louisiana's top higher education board postponed adopting penalties for universities violating admissions standards and delayed spiking a potential northern Louisiana dental school after one member said the region "has to grovel for crumbs."
Louisiana's Board of Regents met Thursday in Baton Rouge, where members also approved a cloud computing degree at Grambling State University, the first at a historically black university and praised GSU President Rick Gallot's leadership.
The amendments to the admissions policy were prompted by former LSU President King Alexander's decision in 2018 to adopt a "holistic" admissions policy less reliant on ACT and SAT scores.
"It all came out of a hotbed that was stirred up a couple of years ago," said Regent Randy Ewing of Ruston. "I support deferring until next month until this is clearer."
Regents Chairman Marty Chabert concurred, saying, "I want everyone to be comfortable" before the board deferred action until the board's February meeting.
“The policy improvements proposed retain the Regents’ steadfast commitment to have students admitted where they can be most successful,” Commissioner of Higher Education Kim Hunter Reed said. “We undertook a thoughtful review of this issue and I am pleased with the collaborative process to date, but we want to ensure everyone is comfortable with the final policy we will present next month.”
In 2018 LSU began placing more emphasis on recommendation letters, personal essays and activities outside the classroom for admissions, a move critics said lowered standards and diminished LSU's stature as a state flagship university.
Alexander is taking over as Oregon State's president later this year.
Louisiana's regents set standards for all of the state's university boards and their schools. Some exceptions for minimum admissions standards are already allowed, but LSU exceeded that number.
But there are no consequences or penalties fro violating the admissions standards. The proposed amendments would allow the regents to ultimately withhold funding for universities that exceed the allowed number of exemptions to the minimum admissions policy.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Barrow Peacock, R-Bossier City, requested the board postpone action on a study that found there isn't a shortage of dentists in 20 northern Louisiana parishes and recommended against starting a new dental school in the region.
Peacock and Sen. Greg Tarver, D-Shreveport, authored Senate Resolution 190 that requested the dental school study for northern Louisiana.
"LSU has addition information that wasn't included in the study and I want the board to be completely informed before making a final decision," Peacock said.
Regent Wilbert Pryor of Shreveport said he doesn't believe northern Louisiana gets the same consideration as Baton Rouge and New Orleans, saying the region has to "grovel for crumbs."
Louisiana's only dental school is located at LSU Health Sciences Center-New Orleans.
LSU also operates a medical school in Shreveport and northern Louisiana's two safety net hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe.
More: No new dental school needed for northern Louisiana
More: Louisiana higher ed board considers penalties for violating college admissions standards
The study did note the biggest number of northern Louisiana dentists are located in the region's population centers of Bossier Parish (25), Caddo (153), Lincoln (15) and Ouachita (80), while there is limited access to dentists in rural parishes. Richland and Franklin are the only other parishes with at least 10 dentists.
East Carroll, Madison, Red River and Tensas each have only one practicing dentist, while Bienville, DeSoto and Jackson parishes each have only two dentists.
The regents agreed to revisit the dental school study after more information is considered.
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1
Now that the elections are over, it is time for us to focus on the upcoming legislative session and critical changes that need to be addressed to RESET Louisiana’s future. This year, the state has the potential to make significant strides toward improvement in many key areas.
The Public Affairs Research Council has research on what needs to be done to reform the state’s broken tax system, including lowering tax rates and replacing the franchise tax with alternative sources of funding, among other initiatives. The Council for A Better Louisiana has research about improving funding for early childhood education over the long term, retooling the JumpStart program and making dual enrollment universal in K-12 education. Other efforts are being discussed to improve workforce development in the state through community and technical colleges by addressing noncredit hour funding.
The next stage of improvements to the criminal justice and public safety system is hard to implement without data, but must include crime prevention and crisis intervention, which cannot be accomplished without an honest discussion about mental health and the opioid abuse crisis. Funding for transportation and infrastructure, which is woefully behind in the state, must be addressed through a broader coalition that builds public trust and achieves high-priority results across Louisiana.
Throughout 2019, the RESET team met with legislative candidates statewide to promote these critical changes, and many candidates ran and won on these issues. We look forward to making these ideas a reality — because nothing happens while we wait.
Please join the Committee of 100, CABL and PAR as we work to RESET Louisiana’s future. Visit www.reset-louisiana.com for more information.
Michael Olivier
Committee of 100 for Economic Development, Inc.
Baton Rouge
Barry Erwin
Council for A Better Louisiana
Baton Rouge
Robert Scott
Public Affairs Research Council
Baton Rouge
By ADAM DAIGLE | Acadiana business editor | Nov 28, 2019 - 6:00 pm
True story: The first Saturday after Jennings native Nick Darbonne moved to Colorado, he was invited to a crawfish boil.
You may think crawfish in the Rocky Mountain State makes as much sense as a 40-degree August evening in Louisiana, but it’s true. Recent data shows Colorado has become home to a rapidly rising number of college-educated Louisiana residents since 2000.
Darbonne, a 2002 graduate of Northwestern State University, moved to Colorado Springs in the spring and began a job with Takeda Pharmaceuticals on May 6. And it didn’t take long for him to discover he wasn’t alone as a Louisiana ex-pat living abroad.
Like the time he saw a guy at the gym with a fleur-de-lis tattoo on his leg.
“I said, ‘Where you from?’” said Darbonne, 41. “He was from New Iberia. He was in oil and gas. He said, ‘I got this tattoo the first week I was here because I knew I was never going home.’ Then a girl tapped me on the shoulder and said she was from Metairie. There’s a ton of Louisiana people up here.”
Colorado is an outlier as far as being a magnet for Louisiana residents since it's not located nearby. Between 2007 and 2017, only Texas pulled away more people from Louisiana than Colorado, with Louisiana having a -4,415 net migration rate with Colorado, according to data compiled by Gary Wagner, Acadiana Business Economist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, for The Advocate.
Among ages 25-54 and between 2000 and 2017, Louisiana’s net migration to Colorado was minus-7,242, which ranks behind only Texas and Florida, data shows.
Colorado has become a hotbed of medical innovation in recent years, Wagner said. The Boulder area ranks high in the number of patents with just over 120 per 100,000 residents. Since 2010, the state’s real GDP growth is at 30.6%, a mark that’s fifth-best in the country.
Louisiana’s GDP growth in that time was the worst in the United States. It actually shrank by 5.6%.
“The Boulder area has really been booming in the last 20 years, especially in medical innovations,” Wagner said. “I think Boulder is actually one of the metro areas in the country that has one of the highest rates of patent innovation. In Louisiana, we almost have none. We’re just not very innovative compared to a lot of other places.”
Darbonne hopes to stick with the momentum in Colorado, which led the nation in net migration of college-educated residents from 2007 to 2017 per 10,000 residents. But it’s also the lifestyle that he says will keep him and his family — his wife of 10 years, Rachel, and their three kids — in Colorado. Their adopted hometown has about 150 municipal parks, he said, and they enjoy being outdoors.
“I love Louisiana,” he said. “I love the culture, and my family is still there. For me, that was the toughest part — leaving my family. But you can bring culture anywhere. I really don’t see myself moving back down to Louisiana.”
