The regular 2023 fiscal session of the Louisiana legislature ended unceremoniously June 8^th with the clerks and staff still trying to patch together the secret promises made in the budget and capital outlay programs to spend and allocate a $2 billion dollar surplus.  Money deals in the Louisiana legislature continued, even after the session was “officially” over.  The final door prizes were handed out, the last of the friendly funding identified, the last toasts to lobbyist were made, and the annual “Louisiana Going Away” party at the legislature finally ended.

But what of the needs of the families and businesses in Louisiana struggling to deal with the oppressive taxes and regulations of Louisiana?  The working man knows that this fiscal session was a total strategic and fiscal failure.  Instead of implementing fiscal responsibility and pro-growth sanity with the $2 billion surpluses, our  legislators threw the usual irresponsible “Louisiana Going Away Party” for their friends, and ignored the strategic needs of Louisiana’s business owners, their employees, and their families.  The legislators may call it a “regular session,” but the hard working people of Louisiana call it a historic financial disaster.  It is a disaster, because the burdensome taxes in Louisiana remain out of control, the spending of excess revenue and manna from federal heaven is spent while the State is left with its continuing operational mismatch.

For many Louisianians, the measuring stick for a good versus bad legislature is whether their actions can stop our decade long out-migration.  Unfortunately, the 2023 legislative session will be known as the ultimate “Louisiana Going Away Party.”

How bad is our legislature’s out-migration problem?  Or asked differently, in the last ten years, how effective have our legislators been in driving people away from Louisiana?  The answer is that the Legislature is the best at doing the worse things possible for business growth.  Recent migration reports show that Louisiana’s out-migration rate is second worse in the nation, only behind the State of New York.  Among the States in the Southeast, only Louisiana has businesses and population collapsing and leaving the State.  It is easy to estimate the number of people our legislators have driven away in the last decade.  The simple answer is that the number of people pushed out and kept out of Louisiana is over 462,000.  Here is the math.  Since 2010, the USA population has grown 10.12%.  Louisiana’s population in 2010 was approximately 4,544,000.  Had Louisiana’s legislature been just an “average” legislature (i.e., no good, no harm), applying the “average” USA population growth rate to Louisiana shows that by 2023 Louisiana’s population should be 5,015,564.  Instead, Louisiana’s 2023 population is estimated to be around 4,553,000 (and dropping).  Louisiana is short 462,000 actual and potential Louisiana citizens who have just “gone away.”  And a recent survey of Louisiana’s college graduates confirms that our talent flight is increasing.  The population shrinkage numbers do not lie.

What did the legislature do wrong?  What should have been done to preserve and grow business opportunity in Louisiana, and to reverse our out-migration was the adoption of what I call the “HB-1 Plus Program.”  This included adopting HB-1, which included a full payment of Louisiana’s horrendous retirement debt, filling the rainy day trust fund, the preservation of the Constitutional spending cap, the freeing up of local funds for teacher pay raises, and consequential cuts in personal income taxes and corporate franchise taxes.  With $2 Billion to invest or spend for our future, the Louisiana business world endorsed the HB-1 Plus Program.  All of Louisiana’s respected business commentators and government policy associations supported the adoption of the HB-1 Plus Program.  These groups included Louisiana Excellence, Inc., The Pelican Institute for Policy, the Louisiana Committee for a Conservative Majority, Louisiana Family Forum, Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, Associated Builders and Contractors, National, the National Federation of Independent Business, and others.  There was almost unanimous endorsement of the HB-1 Plus Program in the business community.  Politically, the Republican Party also fully endorsed the adoption of the HB-1 Plus Program as well.

What was the result?  Every Louisiana Senator voted against  the HB-1 Plus Program, and instead voted to bust the constitutional spending cap, spend the surplus on local and pet projects, pay down little State debt, and once again, let Louisiana’s businesses continue to suffer, and push our population out the door.  All 39 Senators voted to squander our once-in-a-life-time surpluses.  The House of Representatives did only slightly better, with 86 Representatives voting to squander our treasure, and only 19 Representatives standing tall and supporting the HB-1 Plus Program.  But ultimately, the House followed along the irresponsible path of tax and spend, save little and squander today.  No legislative backbone was shown by anyone other than the responsible 19 Representatives.

There was not one single vote for the pro-growth plan from Northeast Louisiana.  The Southeast area had a couple, Northwest had a couple, even the greater Orleans area had a couple.  The Northshore had only one – Rep. Larry Frieman, the vice-chairman of the Louisiana Freedom Caucus. Acadiana and Southwest Louisiana had the majority of the 19 fiscal stalwarts.

It is now election time.  Louisiana needs strong candidates, and determined voters to change this State.  Until we change these “Going Away Legislature Parties” and elect new Senators and new Representatives with backbone and fiscal judgment, Louisiana is destined to bleed out our businesses, and our population and our families are destined to leave.  Now is the time for new legislators and new leadership if we want a new Louisiana.

Paul Loy Hurd, Attorney at Law; Founder of Louisiana Excellence, Inc., can be reached at paul@LouisianaExcel.org