Once again you are in the midst of a regular session where you are grappling with budget issues that have consumed our state for most of the last ten years. This time you are considering a budget with a level of cuts which you probably won’t even pass, coming on the heels of a special […]

Education Leadership Institute -Jefferson Parish (ELI), is a program designed to build your leadership skills and knowledge about the educational policy landscape in Jefferson and in Louisiana. The ultimate goal of ELI is to build a cohort of graduates who possess the necessary policy and leadership skills to advocate as community leaders or serve as […]

Legislation to reform one of the state’s major retirement plans is being shelved by the state retirement system that proposed it because of opposition from the governor. What it means is that unless something changes, this significant reform legislation, which has already passed favorably out of two committees, will die without even a minute of […]

It is unfortunate that the Legislature is going through the exercise it is – debating, and in the case of the House, passing a budget that is by any measure unrealistic and totally untenable. But it does tell us some things we need to pay attention to. Some of the rhetoric coming out of the […]

In recent years there has been growing discussion about the possible need for Louisiana to convene a convention to rewrite the state’s constitution. Many reasons have been given for that. Our constitution has been amended too many times and it’s grown too long. It has ceased to be a framework for governing and become an […]

This year the governor has put forward a legislative agenda which includes a small package of bills dealing with education. Unfortunately, at the heart of it are proposals that don’t push us forward, but seek to drag us back.   Over the last couple of years, CABL and other groups working to improve education in […]

There’s not much to say about the aborted special session that hasn’t already been articulated from just about every corner. It was a failure and now we’re headed into a much longer regular session with a huge cloud hanging over the entire proceeding. The question looming over it all is whether there’s any reason to […]

Earlier this week CABL sent a letter to members of the House of Representatives urging them to resolve the budget and fiscal cliff issues that continue to challenge our state. Here is an abbreviated version of that letter: On behalf of CABL we would like to thank you for your service to our state. We […]

It seems an interesting coincidence that the movie Groundhog Day celebrated the 25th anniversary of its release earlier this month. The story of the weather guy who keeps reliving the worst day of his life over and over again certainly feels like the budget debate we’ve had in Louisiana over the last 10 years and […]

The special session of the Legislature starts Monday, but if you look back over the last few years, it’s hard to find many of them that were really all that “special.” Is there any reason to think this one will be? Perhaps. Governor John Bel Edwards had said earlier that he would not call a […]