Louisiana Schools To Potentially Lose 2016 Season

[KABrother88]

This is a story worth following. Basically the Louisiana State Government it trying to come up with money to cover a $940 million deficit in their budget. The Govenor last night warned that all schools could close by April 1st. If that happens all students would receive an incomplete for their classes making them all athletes ineligible for the fall 2016 season. For Lamar's sake, this could potentially effect games against Southeastern Louisiana, Northwestern St., Nicholls, & McNeese. Many are saying the new Govenor is using this as a scare tactic for approval to raise taxes...but we shall see. Also the story states that Louisiana is also on pace for a $2 billion deficit in 2017 so this may be a reoccurring story.

 

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14764642/louisiana-gov-john-bel-edwards-threatens-future-lsu-tigers-football-tax-proposals-passed

[eagle eye]

The reality of this situation is if the "scare tactics" of Governor John Bel Edwards turn out to be true there will be statewide mutiny. The colleges, especially LSU, are as big a part of the culture of the state as gumbo and the Mardi Gras. If LSU football fails to field a team it will be as close to sacrilege as it gets. It will certainly be political suicide for Edwards and if it happens it could be the Louisiana state government will come under federal scrutiny because of the history of political corruption that the state has. $940MM is a lot to be in arears and it didn't just happen over night. Somebody's pockets have been getting lined at best or the people running the state are idiots at worst. If we lose 4 schools to this mess it could be the end of the Southland. This situation really sucks for Louisiana, the people who support its schools and conferences they are a part of. Most importantly the students and athletes who are going to be screwed in this whole deal will suffer for it the most.

[baller]

While Louisiana has financial issues and many areas will have state allocations reduced ,those in government I know in Louisiana are disappointed with the New Democrat governor's scare tactics.I would bet anyone LSU will play football next year.The PMAC was rocking today as Ben Simmons and the Tigers tamed the Aggies on CBS at noon.Simmons will probably be a top 3 pick in the NBA draft and his total game is impressive for a 6'10" freshman.

[Big T]

I am going to try and not get too political here, but the mess that the new governor is trying fix was caused by the ineptitude and corruption by the last two Louisiana governors. Now, Governor Edwards is fighting against a State Legislature that quite frankly does not want a Democrat in charge, IE U.S. House and Senate with President Obama. Now Edwards is in the position of having to fix the budget that was screwed up by the former governors and the current members of the State Legislature who don't want to him to fix the issue as it would show what a terrible job they have done and would potentially cause them to lose their elected positions and most likely their careers. So, he is threatening to take away one of the most valued aspects of the Louisiana state culture if the Legislature does not cooperate with his budget cuts which will undoubtedly include slashing the Legislatures salaries. Now the bad thing is, if the State Legislatures decided to call his bluff and do not agree to his budget reforms then he will have to go through with his threat or risk never getting anything accomplished because he looks weak. And if he does go through with it he is basically signing his own career death warrant as he will never be able to hold office in Louisiana again. As a political junkie, this is going to be something that will be interesting to keep an eye on. My guess is that they will come to a compromise where neither party looks weak but neither side gets what they want and once again the people suffer, but hey, they will have football!

 

All of this happened because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as well as the energy boom, the only part of the US economy that was booming in 2008. What happened is that between Katrina, Rita, and the energy boom Louisiana found themselves in a spot where they don't find themselves very often; they had tons of excess money just laying around in big stacks. Now comes that bad part, Louisiana has never had a great economy historically. Yes, they have periods where they go through nice booms but that usually lasts no more than 5-10 years and then they are back to functioning almost exclusively off of Federal monies. In the early 2000s, Louisiana found themselves in one of these low money times and by vote of the people of Louisiana decided to increase taxes. After the election the governor of the time, Blanco, saw that the trend of the energy aspect of the Louisiana economy starting to trend up. She decided to stay the new taxes to see what the final outcome of the trend was going to be and she was not disappointed. The trend lead to the energy boom that I mentioned earlier. Now with the economy booming she did not see a need for the new taxes so she decided to not implement the new tax and kept pushing it off. Unfortunately, she neglected to take into account the history of the Louisiana economy as what comes up always comes back down. Then, the worst thing that could possibly happened, happened. Louisiana was hit by not one but two hurricanes in Katrina then Rita. Now on top of all of the energy boom money they now had a huge influx of federal money coming in. Instead of preparing for a rainy day, the Governor, now Jindal went on a spending binge giving raises to every state worker and pretty much blew through the entire surplus in less than four years. On top of that, he decided to completely destroy the new taxes that Blanco kept staying. Now the energy part of the economy is belly up, Federal funds have dried up, and the new taxes were destroyed. Louisiana is in a two billion dollar deficit for next year and you have a power struggle between the new governor and the state legislature. The taxes, had they been implemented would take care of almost half of the 2 billion. And any sort of planning by the former governors and legislature could have completely done away with the current deficits.

[rpruitt1997]

I blame Jindal for the mess.. He did not like the Stelly Tax plan, so he got rid of it. It was bringing in over 800 million dollars a year in taxes. Then he decided to use temporary money to plug permanent holes in the budget. He wanted to lure more industry into the state and did so by granting tax reductions. Some industries did not even ask for reductions! He claimed these new industries would hire Louisiana labor to run them. He was wrong because Louisiana Labor did not have the required skills/education. The new plants brought in labor from out of state. He also made that silly pledge to never raise taxes! He got in his head he could run for President as well. That also failed.

 

Edwards is in a bad place. He has to find a million dollars this year to fund the next spending year. It is a tradition in Louisiana for the Governor to choose the new leaders in the House and Senate. The Republicans elected their own people. Now the same people are saying Edwards is lying and he won't dare close LSU and the Tiger Football team down!? If the Louisiana Legislature goes through with this, THEY will be the ones getting recalled.

 

Jindal is the one that cut tax revenue and did not replace it. Now he is running out of Baton Rouge to the new house he built down river in a gated community. I hope he has to hire security guards when LSU shuts down. Personally I think we should put the Stelly Plan back in and take away some of these tax reductions. Any sales tax increases should be temporary and go away once the mess is over. This will get a whole lot worse before it gets better.

 

rpruitt1997

[baller]

But there is more to this story.Since 1974,constitutionally ,budget cuts heavily burden higher education and health services while many other budget areas are exempted.Bills have gotten through the Louisiana Senate addressing a more proportionate cut methodology where dozens of exempted budget areas can be cut in years facing a budget deficit.The House did not pass those bills.Higher education appropriations have been reduced since 2009 at universities by over 50% resulting in increased tuition and no raises for many staff in over six years.Current legislators I talk to want a balance of cuts and increased taxes while the Governor wants a heavier weighting on taxes.Both Democrats and Republicans I visit with will say the new Democratic Governor's statements about shutting down universities and athletic programs were over the top and,despite his denials,scare tactics.The Stelly tax plan had great merit and combined with the Mount bill limiting exemptions from cuts could go a long way to resolving the 900 million deficit forthcoming and projected 2 billion deficit forecast next year.Of greater concern to higher education enrollment and sports is the potential cuts to the TOPS program in Louisiana which is a big reason for successful programs like LSU and ULL baseball.The state funded TOPS program pays over 3 thousand dollars per semester for all Louisiana students beginning college with a high school GPA as low as 2.5,with an ACT of 20.This is costing the state a bundle as a significant percentage of students are on TOPS.When schools recruit in partial scholarship sports they can use TOPS money for many in state kids thus leaving more athletic scholarship money for out of state kids.You can connect the rest of these dots now that i have collected them for you.There are good things happening in Louisiana as over in Lake Charles,where Lamar has a good chance of winning today,as tens of billions of new industry construction is ongoing and jobs and housing are booming.While oil revenues are down,The LNG industry is getting busy.If you go to Lake Charles today the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino is also constructing more rooms if that interests you.

[baller]

But there is more to this story.Since 1974,constitutionally ,budget cuts heavily burden higher education and health services while many other budget areas are exempted.Bills have gotten through the Louisiana Senate addressing a more proportionate cut methodology where dozens of exempted budget areas can be cut in years facing a budget deficit.The House did not pass those bills.Higher education appropriations have been reduced since 2009 at universities by over 50% resulting in increased tuition and no raises for many staff in over six years.Current legislators I talk to want a balance of cuts and increased taxes while the Governor wants a heavier weighting on taxes.Both Democrats and Republicans I visit with will say the new Democratic Governor's statements about shutting down universities and athletic programs were over the top and,despite his denials,scare tactics.The Stelly tax plan had great merit and combined with the Mount bill limiting exemptions from cuts could go a long way to resolving the 900 million deficit forthcoming and projected 2 billion deficit forecast next year.Of greater concern to higher education enrollment and sports is the potential cuts to the TOPS program in Louisiana which is a big reason for successful programs like LSU and ULL baseball.The state funded TOPS program pays over 3 thousand dollars per semester for all Louisiana students beginning college with a high school GPA as low as 2.5,with an ACT of 20.This is costing the state a bundle as a significant percentage of students are on TOPS.When schools recruit in partial scholarship sports they can use TOPS money for many in state kids thus leaving more athletic scholarship money for out of state kids.You can connect the rest of these dots now that i have collected them for you.There are good things happening in Louisiana as over in Lake Charles,where Lamar has a good chance of winning today,as tens of billions of new industry construction is ongoing and jobs and housing are booming.While oil revenues are down,The LNG industry is getting busy.If you go to Lake Charles today the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino is also constructing more rooms if that interests you.

[KABrother88]

This has now taken another turn...Representative Steve Carter has submitted a bill that, if passed, could threaten the conference affiliations of all Louisiana schools that don't start with LSU. In the bill, it restricts all schools from traveling 375 miles for competitions except those in the LSU School System. Also must note that football and basketball are expected from this, thus it could potentially not affect the SLC in those sports. But, if the SLC deems that these schools can not participate in only these sports, we could have a mess on our hands. It would remove 5 schools from the conference in McNeese, Nicholls, Northwestern St, Southeastern Louisiana & New Orleans. I really don't see this bill getting passed but you never know with Louisiana. Some LSU nut case (like the guy who wrote the bill who just happens to be a former tennis coach & assistant AD at LSU) might see this as an opportunity to kill off competition...

 

http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=990100

 

http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/lsu-football/louisiana-bill-restricted-travel/

[jdcurran235]

How are ULL and ULM affected?

[KABrother88]

Same boat as the SLC schools. The only notable school that wouldn't see an impact would be LSU...

[baller]

This isn't going to happen.Lot's of bills come up and few get through both houses and get signed by the governor.Louisiana universities got a reprieve on budget cuts and Mcneese got to construct their 40! million dollar basketball and physical education facility.An excellent leading indicator that the Southland Conference will not be adversely effected by Louisiana's financial challenges.This is a non story.