JT got a call from a parish councilperson asking if he received a press release from parish government concerning Parish President Rick Nowlin’s decision to not seek re-election this fall. Times staff double and triple checked their emails, spam folders and trash and even asked if anything had come in by US mail. No one at the Times got it. Wonder what that’s about. Since he’s not going to run for re-election, JT wonders if he will be running for another office.
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Only three days left before voters cast ballots on the half-percent road tax. Remember polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Only 251 voters cast early ballots so JT is hoping there will be an influx of participation Saturday.
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Sen. Gerald Long was making the rounds at Taste of Louisiana at NSU Friday evening. Gerald says he will probably run for a U.S. representative seat if one comes open. He’s eyeing the seat now held by Rep. Ralph Abraham who is a likely candidate for governor. If Abraham gets elected, Gerald will probably go after that seat since Long and his wife own property in that district. The district covers most of the northeastern and central portions of the state and much of the northern portions of the Florida parishes. It contains the cities of Monroe and Alexandria.
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JT has a lot of friends, who like himself, are NSU alums who are interested in events on “the hill.” Some have asked JT about the stage at Iberville Green, former site of Sabine Hall. It is a venue open to recognize student organizations as well as departments and can be reserved through NSU Event Management System. It is meant for concerts and will probably host events at Iberville Green such as Freshman Connection, crawfish boils, fraternity and sorority step shows, movies on the lawn and summer camp activities to name a few. The next event will be DemonFest Friday, March 22.
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It was one packed weekend here in Natchitoches….and we’ve got another one just around the corner with the Melrose Arts and Craft’s Festival and the Girl’s Weekend in April. The weather was picture perfect for the weekend. JT thought the Bloomin’ on the Bricks was a big hit. He really enjoyed the NSU music department’s performances on the Riverbank Stage. In fact, JT actually had a game plan for the festival. He started at the Church Street side by listening to a little NSU music, then headed down Front Street (towards the college) checking out the booths. His only detour was to stop and visit with Vickie Murchison and Pat Kelly who were holding court on the benches on the merchant’s side of Front Street around the half way mark. He stopped at Mayeaux’s for lunch, headed across the street to the homemade ice cream vendor and then back for some more music from the NSU students. All in the beautiful sunshine.
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JT made it to one other event…the NSU football scrimmage. It was a small crowd in the stands, but JT knows the 30th Annual Joe Delaney Bowl spring game at 2 p.m. Saturday in Turpin Stadium (which is the final practice for the spring) will be the one to see. There were some really good individual performances and a whole lot of passing in the scrimmage. With the Demon’s returning starter running back, Jared West, out of action for the spring, some of the other running backs got to see quite a bit of action. The one surprise in the scrimmage, which caught even Coach Brad Laird off guard, was the music playing in the background. JT’s not really that up to date on the genres of music, but he thinks it was RAP. And the only thing JT knows about RAP, which someone defined to him as actually bad poetry put to music, is that it’s often laced with vulgarity. Sure enough, the music Saturday was. JT ran into Coach Laird and had to ask about the music choice. JT knows Coach has teenagers at home, but he probably couldn’t name one RAP artist if his life depended upon it. Coach Laird was deeply apologetic. In fact, he said they play music at all of the practices but to him it’s just background noise….his attention is on the players. He didn’t know until after the scrimmage was over there was some unsuitable language in the music. He assured JT that’s one segment of the practice sessions in which there will be a noticeable improvement.
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JT read last week where almost 43 percent of our state’s general fund (money used to operate our state) comes from the federal government. Only one state, Mississippi, gets a greater percentage of their general fund monies from the feds than we do. According to the study, 42.7 percent of our state budget is thanks to the federal government while Mississippi has 43.3 percent courtesy of Washington. Now these are 2016 fiscal year figures. We have probably overtaken Mississippi since we expanded our health care opportunities. States that rely upon larger shares of governmental monies tend to have more low-income residents and below average tax collections. With approximately 14 percent of our budget coming from oil and gas revenues and the 43 percent from the federal government, that leaves business and industry picking up the bulk of what’s left to fund government. We’ve seen a reverse from the 70s when we were so dependent upon oil and gas revenues. Back then, everyone clamored about how we needed to diversify from our reliance on oil and gas money. We’ve moved that bar…but in the wrong direction. We now depend upon federal monies to operate our state…and that’s not good. Most areas of our state have a struggling and/or stagnant economy. If ever there was a time to take a serious look at our tax structure and homestead exemption…it’s now.
