Gov. Bobby Jindal buckled up his big-boy britches for a second time on Monday to show the Louisiana Legislature he’s the boss.
Fresh from denying state legislators a pay raise, Jindal went on to punch 258 holes through their budget. God bless the line item veto. All in all, a total of more than $16.14 million in non-governmental organizational funding was cut.
NGO funding is a Louisiana euphemism for “pork”, which is itself a crude term that indicates government resources distributed by legislators to their constituents to gain the voters’ favor. Pork is typically viewed as an excess that should be disdained.
And Jindal, Mr. Ethical Accountability himself, decided it was time to cut that bacon right out of the budget. In April’s legislative session, he sent a letter to legislators outlining the criteria by which NGO earmarks in budget bills would be judged. These criteria are sensible and straightforward: the NGO must have “statewide or substantial regional impact … been presented/openly discussed during the legislative sessions … state agency priority … [and] the proper disclosure.”
Jindal said this step is part of the larger agenda to “further the creation of a New Louisiana that encourages business growth and job creation so our kids don’t have to leave home.” Whenever I hear such economic formulas from a Republican, I usually can’t help but think of things like tax cuts for big corporations while the little man is stymied.
And a lot of the vetoed items do concern the “little man.” Easily noticeable are the cuts to church programs, minority organizations, private scholarships, small museums and arts organizations, YMCA and YWCA branches, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and the Boys and Girls Club.
But should Louisiana taxpayers fork over $180,000 to fund improvements to a playground in Jefferson Parish? Probably not. (And kudos to Jindal for the fearlessness to veto something from his old congressional district.)
The $16 million Jindal cut is no meager sum. With that kind of cash, I could buy nearly 11 million ice-cream candy bars. Or just as many 40-ounce bottles of beer. Or a mansion boasting a backyard Olympic-sized swimming pool filled with vodka.
Surely others could come up with even more productive uses. But $16 million does not make that large an impact on the state’s $29.9 billion budget. It is as though Jindal shaved off a single penny for every $20 the Legislature planned to spend.
So what are we left with? A great deal of money is saved by eliminating this kind of pork, yet it is only a small fraction of the entire budget. In the end, I believe the answer lies with those most closely affected.
Dennis Assaf is founder and director of the Jefferson Performing Arts Society. Jindal just vetoed a $200,000 earmark for JPAS – a lot of Louisiana tax dollars saved. And now Assaf is trying to decide between cutting programs: the inter-parish community outreach or the summer theater camps? Perhaps instead he will have to let staff go. Or maybe all of the above. And all of this when JPAS was on the cusp of completing a new venue.
“On the eve of accomplishing a life-long passion – that is, building a performing arts center for Jefferson Parish – our funding is drying up,” Assaf said. “I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach. I’m very, very worried.”
—-Contact Daniel McBride at [email protected]