The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana is offering a congratulatory pat on the back to the Revenue Study Commission, that panel of lawmakers that today delivered its recommendations on the various tax incentives and tax breaks offered by the state.
PAR President Robert Travis Scott released the following statement:
The Revenue Study Commission has served a worthwhile purpose in raising the Legislature’s and public’s level of awareness and knowledge of the state’s many tax exemption and preference programs. The Commission’s report appropriately calls for higher standards of cost-benefit analysis and a new culture of accountability in our evaluation of these programs, old and new. The report rightly recommends better justifications and data for the programs and a more rigorous review of outcomes after programs are implemented. The next step is for all state government to take these recommendations seriously and to put these important principles into action.
In rendering his ruling, District Judge John Trahan all but called the real estate developer a liar for inconsistencies in his accounts of what prompted him to punch a school teacher unconscious.
Frank’s Casing Crew, now doing business as Frank’s International, will make its final appearance on ABiz’s list of the Top 50 Privately Held Companies in Acadiana this year, and once again, it will likely be at the top with more than $1 billion in annual revenues. The 75-year-old company specializing in tubular fabrication and installation services to the oil and gas industry plans to go public this year.
The defeat, or rather highjacking of House Bill 420 in the final days of this year's Legislative Session, say Reps. Vincent Pierre and Terry Landry, is the result of the propaganda spread by one unidentified local media outlet and an unnamed former state Representative, but nothing to do with the original legislation's lack of checks, balances or details.
City-Parish Council Chairman Brandon Shelvin heaped steady doses of condescending ire on a Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana executive while failing to reveal his financial ties to a BC/BS rival.
Abbeville native David Primeaux was a popular professor until his death late last year, and while he was successful at camouflaging a dark past, he couldn’t outlive it.
Tehmi Chassion’s failure to recuse himself in the school board’s selection of a group health benefits provider raises ‘serious questions’ on whether he violated state ethics law.
He’s a singer. A songwriter. A piano man. A family man. He’s even got his own Wikipedia entry. He’s David Egan. And he knows ancient secrets about the monolithic stones of Stonehenge that he’s not willing to share.