The Mystery To Taxpayers
by EDITOR - Shreveport Times (excerpt)

Assuming the best of intentions, those who advocate spending large chunks of the state's unprecedented surplus are making investments in important areas: highways, education and economic development. All pay dividends in attracting and retaining industry.

Where taxpayers fret are budget lines in the millions for sometimes obscure faith-based and civic groups, including something called the Purple Circle Social Club in Baton Rouge that has a decrepit building, dwindling membership and a tree it needs cut down. Your state tax dollars are hard at work helping lawmakers reward loyalty and curry election year favors.

Or sprinkled in the state's construction budget, among seemingly important expenditures for state hospital diagnostic equipment, are dollars for items that seem decidedly local in scope. Why should a taxpaying welder in Jonesboro underwrite a community theater in Shreveport or a Bossier City office clerk help fund an alumni group in East Baton Rouge Parish?

The mystery to taxpayers in northwest Louisiana is how the Legislature can get balled up on a no-brainer like I-49 funding, yet barely question lawmakers for all those Purple Circle Social Clubs scattered across 64 parishes.