EDITORIAL: Citizens Deserve Fiscal Restraint
The Daily Advertiser (excerpt)

Three years ago, State Rep. Tim Burns, R-St. Tammany, offered statistics showing Louisiana government spends more money per capita than any other southern state, yet we manage to trail other states in vital services as well as economic progress.

We witnessed the recklessness in spending when legislators triggered statewide anger by voting themselves huge pay raises. The raises were vetoed by Jindal, but only after public reaction reached the boiling point.

There is only one way out of the current crisis - cutting state services. Here, again, we encounter a major problem. In too many cases, funding is locked into the state constitution and cannot be cut without a vote of the public. This problem arises from the fact that the taxpayers don't trust elected officials to spend the money in the manner called for on the ballot.

For years, fiscal crises have triggered cuts in funding for health care and education - vital services not protected by the constitution.

While the current shortfall is due, in part, to factors over which the state has no control, there are many areas that the state does control - and sometimes has handled badly.

The funding cuts will affect all of us. To keep a bad situation from becoming worse, it is long past time for us to demand fiscal responsibility on the part of state government.

Picture: State Rep. Tim Burns