I wonder...With all of her business connections...With all of her experience in "economic development"...With all of the movers and shakers out there she's in cahoots with... NO ONE TOLD HER STATE FARM IN MONROE WAS LEAVING? Is this some kind of 11th hour decision? We can't keep throwing tax incentives at companies hoping they'll stay...Or hoping they'll locate... We've got to phase out business taxes...NOW...and that's just to put us on even footing with other states...If we phase them out, imagine what pro-business governmental legislatures around the nation will have found to entice further businesses looking to relocate? I mean, we're talking about phasing out business taxes on Louisiana companies in 7-10 years...and this is a tax that other states don't have RIGHT NOW...So, in 7-10 years, do we expect other states to still be where they are? No new ideas to attract businesses? We've got to do it NOW, and we've got to come up with some other bright ideas to get businesses here, in a HURRY...or State Farm will look like a petting zoo compared to what's coming...
A LOT of people in Ouachita Parish are going to be affected by this. Basically, State Farm announced a few months ago they were having trouble and considering consolidation, and the state threw them a few tokens and begged. That is it. No plan on how to phase out business taxes, no ideas about how to make it easier for State Farm to do business in Louisiana. Just a few mill in incentives, which is chump change to them. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised. Blanco is just the latest governor to not give a flying flip about ANYTHING that happens north of Bunkie, so this is nothing new to us. But just once, I'd like to see a Governor or huge leader from south Louisiana actually show some concern about north Louisiana. At this point, I'm so frustrated I'd be all for northern part of the state pulling a West Virginia on Baton Rouge and saying "See ya'll chumps later!"
You're right...I am totally being burnt out on politics...It's absolutely-at least in this area-seemingly revolving around getting the pockets of those in government and those around them fatter... Anyone notice how much Johnny Alario, Jr., is getting paid to work on the New Car Commission, after it came out he worked for the Used Car Commission and actually stole a few stacks of high society out of the kitty and went on an extended gambling bender? $55,000 per year... Juba Diez created a position in DOTD that paid $72,000+ a year about three years ago... He got his ass trounced in the recent election, and where is he now? Well, his golden parachute dropped him off in the very position he created if ever he were caught up in a situation such as the one he saw...put out of office by his constituents because they felt someone ELSE could better represent them... Gimme a break... Blanco cuts thirty million from LSU...State Farm is leaving, and the average salary of their employees was $45,000, Louisiana is losing its most powerful DC representative when Tauzin retires, and another back-breaker is the deal and power-broker Breaux, Alario says he got an 8 G raise without public discussion in recognition of his appointment to a PART-TIME-JOB and responded by saying, "That's the way we used to do things...", his son gets a $55,000 THOUSAND dollar job...Representative Damon J. Baldone of South Louisiana offers up legislation to call a Constitutional Convention, with NO representatives from the private business, public business, nor the private citizen sector...That's right, they want to re-write the Constitution of our state WITHOUT PUBLIC REPRESENTATION AND/OR COMMENT, until of course we get another Stelly Plan mind-job put on us at the 11th hour and we don't notice all the fine print they put forth... Has it EVER been this bad? Blanco is letting Louisiana slip down the drain...I can tell you this much...I'm going to be drinking my blues away on the Amite, the Tickfaw, and the Diversion Canal, and perhaps Lake Maurepas...And of course, where better to drown my pain than the place that most of our citizenry acts like on a daily basis...the BLIND River...
Yep, it's all Blanco's fault. She's been in office for almost three weeks now, so she should have revamped the tax structure already. And it was Blanco who gave us the ridicuolous Stelly Plan, and a real governor would have convinced Tauzin and Breaux to stay in Congress and keep delivering for us lik they've been doing.
I don't live in North Louisiana. I don't work for State Farm. This doesn't effect me one iota. This doesn't effect my job at all. Therefore, I don't care. And certainly the government shouldn't get involved. Laissez-faire!
It effects you. Now there will be X number of people who are now unemployed, so: -less state income taxes paid by them -which leads to less spending, less state sales taxes -some will find new jobs, some will leech off unemployment, and/or welfare, etc. -Instead of health care paid for by their insurance, they will be sucking it from state provided care, which is paid for by your tax dollars etc.
Well if you are a true libertarian, you don't believe in income or sales taxes, unemployment benefits or health benefits provided by the Government. The rule seems to be that unless it effects me me me, right now, directly, the government shouldn't be involved. May need clarification from our resident libertarians martin and cotton bowl. I note that Tiger Educated, who doesn't want the Government involved in drunk driving or underage drinking, now wants Governor Blanco who has been in office for less than a month to step in and save some jobs. But it doesn't effect me directly, so I don't see why I should care. Much ado about nothing.
I resent my moniker being mentioned in the same sentence with martin's. Now YOU have touched a nerve. LOL
YOu remain blinded by your right wing blinkers. Just like you refused to critique jindal in the least for his extremist positions and cohorts, you blame someone who had nothing to do with the situation. Do you seriously suggest that State Farm reached this decision recently? Who you should blame, but refuse to, is the FORMER governor. Please tell us what business taxes are placed on state farm that are greater than the taxes of other states? Or do you suggest taxing the middle class to make up the difference?
I have to concur with JD as well. Mike Foster, chief R.I.N.O extraordinaire, also bears a huge burden of the blame for this. Foster did NOTHING while business in this state dried up and blew away in the wind. I don't let Blanco off the hook completely; she could have made an all-out effort to keep State Farm, and didn't. But Foster was in a position to do much more, and didn't.
