The Louisiana House of Representatives is trying to ruin this University.
University students received a mass e-mail May 21 from Chancellor Mike Martin outlining the House’s plan to cut more than $200 million from higher education, including $134 million in one-time funds.
Monroe’s The News Star reported Sunday that the Senate amended the House’s proposed budget cuts, doing away with nearly $300 million in proposed cuts toward health care and higher education.
To put it simply, the Senate told the House to shove it. Like the former Chancellor’s e-mail said, a cut of that magnitude would be detrimental to the University.
The House clearly doesn’t have the best interest of the University at heart. The extent to which the House undervalues higher education is evident in their proposed cuts.
I have a serious problem with LSU being in an economically disadvantaged situation. This state has so much oil and gas that we should never have a deficit, especially one so high.
Oil and gas is the most heavily taxed industry in the country. Taxes collected from the sale of petroleum products are called severance taxes.
A severance tax is a tax on any natural resource “severed” from the land. So when Louisiana gulf oil finds its way to petrol stations in the UK, British motorists are actually paying a tax which contributes back to this state’s operating budget.
Whether they are directly paying the tax or reimbursing the oil company for the losses accumulated through severance taxes, money from all around the world finds its way back to Louisiana.
The best kind of tax to have is the kind that someone else pays. We have that luxury.
The reason Louisiana and this University are facing a budget crisis is because of the rampant fiscal irresponsibility among our elected officials.
For example, Gov. Bobby Jindal wanted to give $500 million to Hawker Beechcraft, an aircraft manufacturing company out of Wichita, if they would relocate their headquarters to Baton Rouge.
The offer included $75 million to build a new facility and nearly $17 million for research and development ­- all funded by the taxpayers.
The offer also included an exemption on property taxes for the company’s new facility.
Hawker Beechcraft declined the offer and chose to stay in Wichita, but that’s not the point.
Jindal offered them half a billion dollars to relocate a business which currently employs around 5,000 people. Half a billion dollars – nearly two percent of the states $25.6 billion overall budget.
Bobby J. is willing to offer $500 million for a few thousand blue-collar jobs, but he and the House can’t seem to find $200 million for an institution which guides nearly 30,000 young people to the job market every year. At least we know where his priorities lie.
Parker Cramer is a 21-year-old political science senior from Houston. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_pcramer.
 
____ Contact Parker Cramer at [email protected]