Louisiana
Louisiana legislators threaten to remove state ethics board members, issue subpoenas • Louisiana Illuminator
Louisiana legislators threatened to subpoena and remove members of the state ethics board Wednesday in an intensification of the fight over enforcement of the state ethics code.
Members of the Louisiana House and Governmental Affairs Committee lashed out at the ethics board for not heeding legislative requests to hold off on hiring a new administrator until January. At that point, Gov. Jeff Landry gains more control of the board through a new set of appointees.
“I think this is a situation where we should have some action to remove board members,” Rep. Candace Newell, D-New Orleans, said during a public hearing Wednesday at the State Capitol. “There should be some kind of punishments for them.”
Two state senators are suing the ethics board over the same issue and got a judge to issue a restraining order to temporarily block members from filling its administration position. Yet House committee members want to go farther.
“With regards to removing board members, do you think that is a legislative item? A gubernatorial deal? Who would be in charge of removing board members if they’re found to be doing something unlawful?” committee chairman Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, asked current ethics administrator Kathleen Allen at Wednesday’s hearing.
The ethics board is responsible for enforcing campaign finance laws and preventing conflicts of interest for elected officials, public employees and lobbyists. It can levy fines against politicians for several types of violations, including not submitting campaign finance information and personal disclosure forms on time. YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
Landry had a fraught relationship with the ethics board long before becoming governor. Under different sets of appointees, its members have reprimanded him multiple times.
In the most high-profile incident, the board charged Landry last year for not disclosing a flight he took on a political donor’s plane to Hawaii as attorney general. The matter is not resolved, with Landry still negotiating with the board about what his punishment should be.
Over the past few months, legislators in both political parties have attacked the board for what they describe as aggressive and abusive investigations. Lawmakers have balked at the board’s interpretation of campaign finance rules that restrict spending from their political action committees.
Unless the board fines or charges a public official for wrongdoing, its inquiries remain private. That confidentiality makes it hard to determine whether legislators who are upset about the ethics board’s actions have ever been investigated by the group.
It’s also difficult to determine to what extent Landry’s activities might have been questioned by the board.
“No one in the public has any idea what you’re doing and why you’re doing it,” Rep. Dixon McMakin, R-Baton Rouge, told Allen, who represented ethics board members at Wednesday’s hearing.
“I hope that is something that you all are sued for. I hope you lose ‘cause you’re the Board of Ethics, and that is unacceptable,” he said.
Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, suggested the House committee use its subpoena power to force the ethics board chairwoman, La Koshia Roberts of Lake Charles, to appear at a future meeting. The board has levied thousands of dollars of fines against Marcelle for filing her campaign finance reports late.
Beaullieu told Marcelle the committee would look into that option.
Legislators allege the ethics board violated government transparency laws when its members discussed the hiring of an administrator to replace Allen behind closed doors. They said the matter should have been discussed openly at a public meeting.
In their lawsuit, Sens. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, and Stewart Cathey, R-Monroe, also allege the ethics board broke the law by not taking the required vote to go into a private session to discuss the administrator position. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Allen pushed back on these accusations Wednesday, telling lawmakers she believes the board has complied with state open meetings law requirements.
She attributed the confusion to all the ethics board meeting minutes not having been posted publicly yet. A review of those missing records would show board members acted correctly, she said.
“Anything we did during [the private] executive session I feel like is appropriate,” she told lawmakers.
Outside of picking a new ethics administrator, Rep. Ed Larvadain, D-Alexandria, lobbed a personal accusation at Allen.
“You have a history of not including African Americans [on the ethics board’s staff],” Larvadain told Allen.
“I take offense that I have excluded African Americans. I have never directed an employee to exclude anyone based on race or gender,” Allen responded.
Approximately 20% of the ethics board staff is African American, Allen said, but over 30% of Louisiana’s population is Black.
Black employees are underrepresented in white-collar state government jobs, such as those seen at the ethics boards, and Black legislators often question agencies about the makeup of their workforce.
In the new year, when Landry gains more control over the ethics board, it will lose some of its current independence.
Landry and the legislators approved a new law that allows them to pick the members of the ethics board directly starting in 2025.
Previous governors and legislative leaders were required to select board appointees from lists of candidates that leaders of Louisiana’s private colleges and universities recommend. The old system was an attempt to insulate the board from the outside political pressure.
Louisiana
Know the Foe: Gaining Louisiana Tech insight with BleedTechBlue
As we will do throughout this football season, HawgBeat went behind enemy lines to gain insight on the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs with BleedTechBlue Publisher Ben Carlisle.
Louisiana Tech has been on a bit of a roller-coaster this season, as it defeated a team like Western Kentucky (7-3 record) and nearly beat NC State on the road, but the Bulldogs lost Tulsa, FIU and Sam Houston.
Under Cumbie’s leadership, Louisiana Tech has accumulated a 10-24 (7-16 CUSA) overall record in three seasons. This year, the Bulldogs boast the No. 104 total offense (344.4 YPG) and No. 61 passing offense (232.2 YPG) in the country.
Here is what Carlisle had to say about Saturday’s matchup, which is set to kick off at 3 p.m. CT at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville…
Louisiana
Louisiana lawmakers search for ways to pay for Landry’s proposed income tax cut • Louisiana Illuminator
Gov. Jeff Landry’s ambitious plan to overhaul Louisiana’s tax structure has largely been pared down to a more modest goal – cutting state income taxes.
Lawmakers are working on a way to make sure the state can pay for that desired tax reduction while not having to make damaging cuts to areas such as health care and higher education.
Options include raising the state sales tax rate higher than it is now, retaining a higher corporate income tax rate than proposed or settling on an income tax cut that is smaller than Landry originally pitched weeks ago.
The governor wanted to move to a flat personal income tax rate of 3% – the highest rate currently is 4.25% – but it will cost the state more than $1 billion annually. Landry’s income tax plan also leaves the state approximately $700 million short of what is needed to cover the costs of government, according to senators.
Through his Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson, the governor had originally crafted a proposal that would exchange a broader base of tax collections for lower personal income and corporate taxes. Nelson said Louisiana would be able to pay for across-the-board personal income and corporate tax rate cuts totaling billions of dollars as long as the state scrapped generous business tax breaks and applied the sales tax to a greater range of products.
The governor has struggled to get lawmakers to fully embrace the trade off, however.
Legislators have eagerly voted for bills to cut corporate and personal income taxes but stalled on proposals to help make up for that lost revenue.
Landry’s tax package started to unravel last week when the Louisiana House of Representatives refused to vote for legislation that would extend the sales tax to more services, such as lawn care, home repair and dog grooming. YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
“Obviously, the services bill in its original form was a little over $500 million, which would equate to about a half a point on the personal income tax,” House Speaker Phillip Devillier, R-Eunice, said.
This week, the Senate declined to fully roll back some of the state’s expensive business incentive programs, such as its movie and television tax credits and historic preservation tax breaks that collectively cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
A plan to eliminate a state inventory tax credit, which covers taxes businesses pay to local governments, has been delayed until 2026, and a proposal to increase a tax on heavy machinery and equipment used by industrial employers has also been scrapped.
If he doesn’t find a way to make up for that money, Landry runs the risk of revisiting the same political problems that plagued former Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Jindal also cut income taxes without replacing the lost revenue or finding a permanent way to cut government spending. His policy led to chronic budget problems for years and made the former governor deeply unpopular when he left office.
Senate leaders appear to be pushing for a higher state sales tax rate to help fill the hole left by the personal income tax cut.
It was scheduled to automatically drop from 4.45% to 4% in July, though Landry had already pitched keeping the extra 0.45% permanently as a way to cover the corporate and personal income tax reductions. Now, lawmakers are considering an even higher rate to cover the state’s expenses; 5% has been floated for a few days.
“This isn’t a tax-lowering session. This is a tax-reorganization session,” Rep. Michael Echols, R-Monroe, said Wednesday. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Louisiana already has one of the highest average sales tax rates in the country, and that levy is a larger burden on poor people who have to pay the same rate as the wealthy. Very low-income households don’t pay income tax and won’t necessarily see benefits from cuts Landry and lawmakers make in that arena.
“As soon as you start to increase the sales tax more, the plan becomes more regressive,” said Rep. Matthew Willard, D-New Orleans, leader of the House Democratic Caucus.
Several Republicans and Democrats in the House also weren’t enthusiastic about the sales tax portion of the original tax plan and might not want to vote for a 5% rate. A bill to keep the state sales tax at 4.4% barely passed the House, with just two votes to spare last week.
“That would be the top number we need for sales,” Sen. Franklin Foil, R-Baton Rouge said Wednesday morning. “We don’t necessarily have the votes to do that yet. We need to get a tally of where things stand.”
Lafayette Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, head of the Senate Democratic Caucus, said his party doesn’t want a higher sales tax rate, but Democrats also fear government programs they champion, like social services, will be targeted if they don’t support the proposal.
“We want to make sure the things that are important to us will be funded, right?” Boudreaux said Wednesday before he and other Democratic senators headed off to a meeting with Landry.
Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, was bullish on the legislators’ willingness to raise the sales tax to 5%.
“I think it can get there. It’s an easier path for that than it is for broadening the base,” he said.
If lawmakers aren’t willing to raise the sales tax more, legislators could look to retain more of the current corporate income tax rate, but they’ve already pulled back on an original plan to cut that tax dramatically.
Landry initially pitched replacing the graduated corporate tax rate that tops out at 7.5% with a flat 3%. But the senators moved that levy back up to 6% earlier this week to claw back some revenue. A further increase might be unlikely given pressure from business lobbyists.
Corporate taxes are also a notoriously unstable source of tax revenue. In part because sizable tax credits can be applied in any budget cycle, corporate tax collections have ranged from $193 million to $1.6 billion annually over the past 10 years, according to the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana.
Legislators could also increase the personal income tax rate from 3% but seem very reluctant to do so. If it does go up, they would try to keep it to a small adjustment, like up to 3.1% or 3.2%.
“My belief is the personal income tax will, probably will, stay at 3(%),” said Foil, who heads the Senate committee that oversees tax policy.
Louisiana
Arkansas vs. Louisiana Tech: Star comparison, PFF grades, season stats
The Arkansas Razorbacks (5-5, 3-4 SEC) will look to secure bowl eligibility Saturday against Louisiana Tech (4-6, 3-4 CUSA) at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.
Hailing from Ruston, Louisiana, the Bulldogs will bring the nation’s No. 12 total defense with them to Fayetteville fresh off an upset win over Western Kentucky, which was leading the Conference USA standings prior to last Saturday.
“We’re catching them when I think they’re playing their best football,” Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said Monday. “They deliver some problems. The structure of their defense. They’re a 3-3-5 but it’s different because they have a robber, a rover — a guy basically who’s hard to get to to block. Who is a really, really good player. The (Kolbe) Fields kid.
“So offensively, they’re running the ball a lot better than they have all year. Not throwing it quite as much as what they did earlier in the year. Bu the transfer from Coffeyville (Omiri Wiggins) is a hard runner. Their line is playing well. They’ve got a lot of speed at wideout. So I think they’re going to come in with a lot of confidence, obviously, after their win last week. We’re excited to have them here and on senior day for us. But we know that was a big win for them last week and they’ll come in with a lot of confidence I’m sure.”
Arkansas is statistically better than the Bulldogs in generally every major offensive category, but the Louisiana Tech defense is stingy. Former Razorback Zach Zimos has logged nearly 500 snaps on the year at linebacker, which is a position he switched to after being a safety with the Razorbacks.
“He’d hit you,” Pittman said. “When he hit you, you got stuck. Certainly playing a different position than we had him here. But I like Zach, I always have. I’m happy for him. I think he’s one of the leaders over there. He’s played a lot of ball. I’m just really happy for him and he’s doing a good job. He’ll hit you, now, so we’ll have to figure that out.”
The Razorbacks will be trying to bounce back from a 20-10 loss to Texas that set them back to a .500 record on the season. A win over the Bulldogs would make Arkansas bowl eligible after the Hogs missed the postseason last year.
“This game, winning, if we can win, it will allow us to play not just another one but another one after that,” Pittman said. “And we just have to continue to improve. So I think that’s what we’ll talk about a little bit more than even what Louisiana Tech has been able to do lately.”
HawgBeat has also compared both teams’ grades from Pro Football Focus, which is a football analytics website that provides grades for each individual player and full teams after analyzing each game for all Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. Grades are given from 0-100, with the higher the grade signifying better performance.
Here’s a look at how both teams stack up based on stats from this year and high school star ratings:
Offense
Louisiana Tech || Arkansas
Scoring: 21.9 (109th) | 30.7 (45th)
Total yards: 344.4 (104th) | 458.3 (11th)
Passing: 232.2 (61st) | 278.0 (20th)
Rushing: 112.2 (115th) | 180.3 (80th)
Third downs: 41.7% (57th) | 47.3% (15th)
Sacks allowed/game: 3.3 (122nd) | 3.1 (117th)
Turnovers: 19 (118th) | 17 (98th)
Defense
Louisiana Tech || Arkansas
Scoring: 21.1 (35th) | 25.7 (75th)
Total yards: 302.3 (12th) | 380.2 (80th)
Passing: 187.3 (26th) | 257.2 (116th)
Rushing: 115.0 (29th) | 123.0 (38th)
Third downs: 36.0% (57th) | 37.0% (59th)
Sacks/game: 1.8 (78th) | 2.1 (57th)
Turnovers forced: 13 (68th) | 12 (85th)
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