Yet another Republican supply-side budget muck-up

[RandomGuy]

Sadly familiar story.

GOP governor rides into office, implements a supply-side batch of tax cuts to "create jobs" then leaves the state in a fucking mire of red ink, caused by his/her own stupidity.

This time it is Louisiana.

http://news.yahoo.com/office-jindal-looms-over-louisiana-budget-crisis-154442444.html


BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Bobby Jindal left the governor's office nearly two months ago, but his legacy permeates a special legislative session aimed at digging Louisiana out of deep financial troubles.

Louisiana's worst budget crisis in nearly 30 years is threatening public colleges with cuts that could shutter campuses mid-semester and putting health care services for the poor and disabled at risk of elimination.

State leaders blame the Republican former governor for creating — and hiding — many of those woes.

Jindal, burnishing his fiscal conservative credentials for his failed presidential campaign, refused to hike taxes or approve any action that even resembled a tax hike, including trimming expensive business tax credits, even amid an economic downturn. So, TV's bearded men of "Duck Dynasty" got millions in film tax credit subsidies, while tuition skyrocketed for college students at campuses struggling with deep state financing cuts.

Criticism of Jindal is bipartisan and widespread, with irritated lawmakers left sifting through the highly-unpopular choices of raising taxes or taking a hatchet to higher education and government services. They're considering enacting tax bills Jindal vetoed and stripping a fake tax credit created to protect Jindal's anti-tax record.

[DMX7]

What a disgrace.

[boutons_deux]

LA, MI, WI, KS, Repug MISgovernance is reliable

[Splits]

Dude fucked over millions of people for his own personal political ambitions.

This shit should be criminal, maybe they'd stop fucking doing it if there were actual consequences.


Rats and sewage
In Louisiana’s capital, on a university campus just seven miles north of the government offices, is perhaps the most acute evidence of the funding cutbacks — and the mounting concern about what will happen next. At Southern University and A&M College, a historically black institution along the Mississippi River, mold spreads across building walls, and rats scurry through dormitories. Eighteen buildings have roof leaks; in two, raw sewage occasionally belches onto the floor. An entire section of the library is off limits because of a perpetually broken fire alarm.

“One elevator has been broken since 2013,” said Taysia Marie, a junior nursing student. “I’ve never seen it working.”

Since the 2007-08 school year, Louisiana has cut funding for higher education by 44 percent, the sharpest pullback in the nation; Southern has seen its funding cut 49 percent. During that time, the burden of supporting education has flipped: Whereas the state once provided 70 percent of the money its schools spent, now the students support the bulk of the costs — in the form of higher tuition.

Michael Reed, a spokesman for Jindal when he was governor, said in an email that Louisiana’s tuition rates are still $1,500 less than the national average. He said Jindal fought to protect Louisiana’s prized state scholarship fund, despite pressure from legislators.

School officials at Southern and at other institutions, including Grambling and Louisiana State University, have whittled away at expenses because of the state funding cuts. Southern placed staffers on furlough and cut support services for students from rough backgrounds. The school also put off some $180 million in maintenance and renovation, including plans that would bring buildings up to code for disabled students and fire safety, Southern’s chancellor, Ray Belton, said in an interview.

In part because of the decaying facilities, Southern was struggling to provide a “conducive learning environment,” he said. Graduation and year-to-year retention rates have slipped.
Now the school has been told to prepare for even less funding. Even with new taxes, higher education could be cut statewide by as much as $70 million for the rest of this academic year. In a worst-case scenario without new revenue, Southern initially said that it would be rendered virtually “nonoperational” and close its doors. But the school later backed away from that plan and said it could still function, though barely. It would shed 200 staff positions and eliminate 125 adjunct professors. It would cancel summer classes. Most campus offices would operate two or three days per week.

For students here and at other Louisiana universities, one of the more alarming parts of the budget crisis will hit them even if the state does raise new revenue. A popular “TOPS” scholarship fund — available to anybody in the state with a 20 ACT score and a 2.5 GPA — is depleted. Some students will lose their scholarships, and for a future batch of high schoolers, the fund will be unavailable. Belton said that many students were taking out new loans to deal with the rising tuition or stressing about how they would remain enrolled.

“We’re trying to provide for a middle class in America,” he said. “And to compromise that mission compromises the promise for the state.”

[SnakeBoy]

What a shame, Louisiana was such a fine place before Jindal took office.

[boutons_deux]

What a shame, Louisiana was such a fine place before Jindal took office.

... it was certainly better.

[RandomGuy]

LA, MI, WI, KS, Repug MISgovernance is reliable

Don't forget LePage in Maine.

[RandomGuy]

What a shame, Louisiana was such a fine place before Jindal took office.

I guess.

It went from soft corruption to intellectual bankruptcy.

You can prosecute one, but what do you do with stupidity?

[boutons_deux]

Don't forget LePage in Maine.

yep, ME, too.

and NV Repugs have killed rooftop solar, RETROACTIVELY.

[baseline bum]

What's the muck up? Shit looks like it worked exactly as intended.