Lee Dresselhaus / L’Observateur / June 14, 2000

So’..excuse me, but I have a question for the duly elected lawmakers of theState of Louisiana: What happened to all that money we gave you? I’m having a hard time understanding how a state with one of the highest tax rates in the country can be broke. I just heard that Louisiana is facing a onehundred and thirty-five million dollar shortfall. Let me put that into good oldnumbers. That’s $135,000,000 dollars short. I’m going to ask the questionagain that I’ll be asking in one form or another several times throughout this column.

Can somebody tell me where that money is? We here in Louisiana are beat to death with taxes and every time we turn around somebody is adding this millage or that millage or this increase or that increase because they say we just can’t exist without more taxes. Well,if I’m already paying about nine cents on the dollar for everything I buy in this state, I don’t want to pay any more taxes. Now, keep in mind that the ninecents is a sales tax and doesn’t even take into account the way the State and the Fed play Artful Dodger and pick our pockets each pay day before we have a chance to buy anything. Think about that. If you’re a young marriedcouple who makes a combined income of, say, $50,000 a year and hasn’t had kids and you don’t have to take care of your parents and you don’t cheat and claim your parakeet as a deduction, you probably are paying about fifteen percent of your income right off the top in taxes. Combine that with the ninecents on the dollar you donate to the state every time you buy whichever yuppie toys you think you can afford and you’re paying nearly a quarter of your income to one government body or another.

Yeesh.

Sounds like a shakedown, doesn’t it? I’m not sure, but I don’t think a Mafia loan shark would charge that much interest. It would be bad for business. To put a topper on it, unlike a lot of other states, this state even taxes food purchases at your local grocery store. And clothing. Some states don’t taxeither. Some states don’t even have a state income tax at all and stillmanage to stay solvent. So here’s that question again. Where does all that money go? I realize that a state requires revenue to survive and must seek ways to generate that revenue. Taxes are one of those ways. But come on, folks. Weget taxed out the wazoo here in this state and now they’re crying for more and threatening this cut or that cut if they don’t get it. Just who isaccountable for all that, anyway? Here’s another little issue. When the whole gambling thing was being battedback and forth by the population and the legislature, the rallying cry for those who wanted it legalized here was “Education!” At first it was the scratch-off tickets that were supposed to become sort of a golden goose for Louisiana’s education system. There was talk of tagging all that moneythey generate for our schools. So, with that as one of the main arguments,the scratch-off system became legal and, guess what? All that money went into a rat hole known as the “general fund.” That was income the state didn’thave before. They had generated a new source of cash.So where did it go? Then, of course, came the lottery. Same thing. This was supposed to helpour education system and basically be the snake oil we needed to get this state running a true course. Didn’t happen. But, where did all that money go? And then the big one. Casinos. Right now there are gobs of riverboat casinosup and down the Mississippi River. And, of course, there’s the Harrah’sextravaganza in New Orleans. These places were supposed to bringprosperity and all that goes with it to Louisiana. Well, that hasn’t happenedeither. And, to top that off, the state even blatantly gouges Harrah’s forone hundred million dollars a year. That’s $100,000,000 a year. Lotsazeroes, ain’t it? And we can’t give our teachers a raise or make sure our schools all have air conditioning. Sorry, folks, but there’s something wrong with that picture.If you owned a business that was that mismanaged, you would fire the manager right away if you had any sense at all. And you’d probably call thepolice to find out where all that money wandered off to.

Well, we do own this business, and I’d like to know just what in the name of fiscal mismanagement has happened to it. Somebody is responsible for allthat money disappearing into the above-mentioned rat hole, and I’d like to know which rat it is. Maybe he should be made to sit in one of thosesweltering, un-air conditioned classrooms while some underpaid teacher tries his or her best to get something through to the future of our country, our kids.

I wonder where all that money went?

Lee Dresselhaus is a regular columnist for L’Observateur

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