The Founders Show

By: News Talk 99.5 WRNO (WRNO-FM)
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  • Summary

  • A look at Louisiana politics from Chaplain Hy McEnery and Christopher Tidmore
    Copyright News Talk 99.5 WRNO (WRNO-FM)
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Politics & Government
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Episodes
  • Gaetz Drops Out, Louisiana Tax Reform, Opera Cook-Off

    Gaetz Drops Out, Louisiana Tax Reform, Opera Cook-Off
    Nov 22 2024
    Hy and Christopher weigh in on Matt Gaetz withdrawing his nomination to become U.S. Attorney General, mostly due to a choice that Mike Johnson allowed his backbenchers to make happen. Knowing that likely they were not enough votes in the U.S. Senate to confirm Gaetz as AG, President-elect Donald Trump had pushed Johnson to put the U.S. House in recess. The Senate was poised to enter recess for a few days as well, and absent Congress-in-session, Trump could appoint Gaetz into the AG position for up to two years without need of confirmation. Instead, Speaker Johnson allowed some of his members to set a schedule to keep the U.S. House in session all the way through Christmas and the inauguration. The North Louisiana Republican leader could have used his influence to convince them to bang the gavel into recess. He opted not to do so, likely remembering the Gaetz tried to eject him from his job as House speaker.Christopher observes how Johnson could’ve used certain procedural methods, similar to this, to diffuse the entire bathroom controversy.Delaware elected the first transgender congresswoman, Sarah McBride, and in reply, Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican representative, had introduced a bill to ban transgender people, including congressional members, officers and employees, from using single-sex bathrooms and other facilities on Capitol Hill that correspond to their gender identity.To thwart a legislative battle over that bill, Speaker Johnson declared the public bathroom access must be according to one’s birth gender, “It is important to note that each member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol. Women deserve women’s only spaces.”The hosts speculate could Johnson have vocally urged Sarah McBride to use her member’s bathroom, and simply proceeded to ignore the problem? What if Johnson had taken no action either way? Nancy Mace, a flamethrower, would have pursued her legislation, but the speaker could have quietly killed it in committee. No one would have been the wiser. Or maybe not.Hy and Christopher then examine the results of the LA legislative session and wonder if raising the sales tax by a penny was the only politically possible alternative to fund an income tax cut.We conclude the show talking about an exciting new partnership between the New Orleans Opera and SoFAB with guest NOOA General & Artistic Director Lila Palmer.Dozens of times in the last 200 years, new works of opera have premiered in New Orleans, earning the Crescent City the moniker “The First City of Opera” in the United States. On December 8, The Cook-Off, a new comic opera in English about the creation of the Mac & Cheese, will premier at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in honor of SoFAB’s 20th Anniversary--and in honor of the retirement of SoFAB’s founder Liz Williams. The New Orleans Opera Association in cooperation with SoFAB brings a nationally acclaimed cast to put on the new production. They even debate in song whether the “Mac & Cheese” was invented in the Big Easy. With Music by Shawn Okpebholo and Text by Mark Campbell, the new opera features three competitors from the nation’s favorite fictional cooking show, “America Loves Food”, as they battle it out to make the best version of a classic comfort food: macaroni & cheese! The Cook-Off will premier in two back-to-back performances in the SoFAB’s main Museum gallery at 11:30 AM and 2:00 pm. on Sunday, December 8, to the musical accompaniment of members of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, at 1504 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70113. The 11:30 AM performance will include a special curated brunch in SoFAB’s restaurant space. Tickets are available at https://noo-internet.choicecrm.net/dist/#/event-details/S0:E475The New Orleans Opera’s production of the opera The Cook-Off in the museum is the first of several planned partnerships between the two cultural institutions. The joint ventures are the brain children of NOOA General & Artistic Director Lila Palmer and SoFAB Director Constance Jackson. Palmer has previously produced opera with heritage partners including the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boston, London Transport Museum and Museum of London. Jackson, a New Orleans native, also pioneered artistic partnerships in the UK capitol city as a non-profit executive over the past decade.NOOA Premier of NEW English language opera The Cook-Off at Southern Food & Beverage Museum In celebration of 20th AnniversaryDATE: Sunday, December 8, 2024 TIME: 11:30 AM and 2:00 PM LOCATION: Southern Food & Beverage Museum, 1504 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70113Tickets for Brunch & Opera: Call (504) 529-3000 or go online at www.neworleansopera.org
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    54 mins
  • Louisiana Senators May Redesign Tax Reform in Potential Deal

    Louisiana Senators May Redesign Tax Reform in Potential Deal
    Nov 15 2024
    On this week’s show, Hy and Christopher wonder if a deal could coming together to preserve the Film, Live Performance, Digital, Quality Jobs and Historic Restoration tax credits?It looks like a compromise may be in the works, according to highly placed sources who spoke to The Louisiana Weekly on the condition of anonymity, but it remains less clear how the Landry administration could plug an additional $500-million hole in the budget. Retaining those credits would create such a deficit. Absent other tax changes, the legislature would find it difficult to achieve the governor’s desired three percent flat income tax rate on individuals, 3.5 on corporations, abolition of the state corporate franchise tax, as well as enacting a permanent $2,000 per year pay increase for teachers. In fact, the potential fiscal hole may have grown even larger after the La. House rejected a slew of sales tax hikes on Thursday, November 14, 2024. That decision alone created the potential of an additional $500 million deficit.In the Special Session’s first week, a series of tax changes (including a constitutional amendment) comfortably earned better than a 2/3 majority of the Louisiana House of Representatives, but one major piece of legislation failed by one vote. Many GOP legislators felt deeply uncomfortable instituting several new sales taxes – especially on boat storage. Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson maintained in the House Ways & Means Committee a week prior that the package had to pass in its entirety, as written. He argued that eliminating any element would unbalance the revenue-neutral nature of the entire reform. That was also the case that Gov. Jeff Landry made in a private Thursday morning meeting less than 15 hours after he opened the Special Session on Tax Reform on Nov. 6, 2024. Landry asked several skeptical legislators to support the entire package of bills in the House, both in committee and on the floor. However, the Governor reportedly added would be willing to reconsider the sunset of several of the more popular credits and exemptions by the time the package of bills reached the La. Senate Revenue & Fiscal Affairs committee. Nevertheless, Landry’s pleas ended up being insufficient to save HB10 one week later to pass certain sales tax hikes, but pressure from the governor proved enough to convince the House members to sunset some of the most popular tax credits for the arts and historic restoration. By better than 80 votes, the La. House voted to abolish the Louisiana Quality Jobs Program which rebates up to 6 percent of annual payroll expenses for up to 10 years and costed $153.3 million in 2023; the Film, Digital, and Live Performance Tax Credits which cost collectively $250 million and provide 25 percent rebate on production costs and 35 percent on labor costs; and the Historic Restoration Credit which covers 20 percent of construction costs at just over $100 million. In addition, companion legislation had sought to renew the soon-to-expire .45 cent “temporary” sales tax along with imposing sales taxes on services previously untaxed. It was the imposition of many of these new sales taxes which ran into trouble. One of the two bills barely passed, while the other failed. House Bill 10 crossed the 2/3 finish line by one vote, 71-33. In fact, to insure passage, the legislation had to be amended to replace the expiring 0.45-cent state sales tax with an 0.4-cent sales tax, a reduction of .05-cents. As a result, the La. Treasury would receive roughly $50 million per year less per year. After approving another 47 amendments without objection, House members did deft Landry by maintaining some sales tax exemptions—including those for the purchase of diapers and Bibles.Despite the pressure which the governor put on wavering state representatives exactly seven days before, House Bill 9 (which would have raised sales taxes on may of items listed below) failed by one vote on Thursday, November 15. Landry vowed to push for another vote. Interestingly though, the failure of HB9 in the House might provide a pathway for a key Senate committee to also save the Film, Live Performance, and Historic Restoration Tax Credits in the coming week.Originally, HB9 and HB10 would have placed sales taxes on: 1 Storage for boats and vessels of less than 50 tons load displacement and trailers along with auto club services and fees; 2 Car wash services; 3 Coin-operated machines; 4 Computer software installation, repair and maintenance; 5 Condominium timeshare and exchange services; 6 Dating services and marriage bureaus; 7 Delivery, shipping, freight and transportation services associated with taxable sale of tangible personal property; 8 Non-medical diet and weight reduction services; 9 Immovable property repair, maintenance and installation services (excluding new construction, reconstruction and capital improvements); 10 Information services such as research publications, ...
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    54 mins
  • Post-Election Roundtable, Latest On Louisiana Tax Reform Special Session

    Post-Election Roundtable, Latest On Louisiana Tax Reform Special Session
    Nov 8 2024
    Hy and Christopher are joining in our post-election roundtable with Jeff Crouere of ringsidepolitics.com and Curtis Robinson of hunter-gathererspodcast.com to analyze Trump’s unexpected landslide victory. What are the reasons, and how did his coattails make a difference? Two examples are demonstrated in the second and sixth congressional districts in Louisiana, explained below.Later in the show, we explore Governor Jeff Landry’s tax reform proposal. Answering growing legislative opposition to his tax reform proposals, including the elimination of the film, live performance, historic restoration, quality jobs, and sales tax exemptions on everything from boat storage to wedding planners, Landry appeared before joint session of the legislature, pleading for a repeal of the 1,400-page tax code in favor of a 3% flat tax individuals, 3.5% on corporations, and a broader sales tax on everything but prescription drugs—a tax which would be eliminated.Carter Re-Elected with 183,897 votes out of 305,019By Christopher TidmoreA group of Garden District voters expressed surprise to The Louisiana Weekly on the evening of November 5th that they had found themselves suddenly redrawn into Steve Scalise’s congressional seat. The overwhelming group of Caucasian Democratic voters were perplexed why their “deep blue” precincts ended up in the GOP majority district.The loss of several key precincts which had long been part of Louisiana’s Second Congressional District, as a side effect of the shifts all across the state to allow the creation of the new minority-majority Sixth Congressional District, could have proven a liability for Rep. Troy Carter. Some of the incumbent’s most reliable core constituencies were lost just as the sophomore congressman faced a surprisingly well organized challenge from the Left from Democrat Devin Davis.With new electorates drawn-in to the Second Congressional District by the legislature last year, Carter could have been forced into a runoff. A perfect storm might have been forming as three Republicans also entered the 2024 contest, drawing away moderate voters. In the end, these GOP contenders collectively earned 30% of the vote, Devin Lance Graham at 13%, Christy Lynch at 14%, and Shondrell Perrilloux at 3%. This GOP strength on election day proved particularly interesting because the Second District boasts of only 16% Republican registration. Therefore, such decent turnout on the right matched with a strong Democratic challenge from the left could have cast Carter into a lower turnout December 7 runoff, where any result was possible.In the end, though, Troy Carter was easily re-elected on November 5 with 60% of the vote in a seat that is 56% Democratic by registration. The incumbent sophomore congressman campaigned far harder than many observers expected, with extensive television, print, and social media advertising, as well as in-person events. Carter spent a lot of time and money to win back his office, and it showed. Devin Davis, his principal progressive Democratic opponent, ended up only getting 11% of the vote, running fourth.To claim his second full term, Carter managed to win in excess of 70% of the vote in sone of his core Orleans and Westbank Jefferson precincts, offsetting Davis’ campaign efforts in the River Parishes. Ironically, under the old map, Carter’s margin of victory might have been tighter, but the loss of several Baton Rouge metro precincts to the newly created Sixth District ended up benefiting the New Orleans-based candidate. Carter over-performed in the areas which once constituted his councilmanic and state senate districts.The New Orleans Congressman returns to a closely divided US House of Representatives in Washington. While he serves on the House Homeland Security and Transportation committees, his unofficial role as a conduit of communication between his two long-time personal friends Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has granted him an outsized role. Carter has played a key role in passing several pieces of legislation.LA’s Second District Congressman went so far as to create an regular end-of-the-week bipartisan cocktail party in his office for members from all over the country just to keep the lines of communication open between the parties. As a result, Carter’s almost singular role as ambassador between the factions granted him an outsized influence in the previous Congress—which will likely continue into the next. Fields Returns To US HouseBy Christopher TidmoreAs chairman of the legislative committee charged with creating a new LA majority-minority district, Cleo Fields himself drew the newly reconstituted Sixth Congressional as a seat so stretched across the state that only a candidate with his level of name recognition could win it. He succeeded—barely. The LA State Senator will return to the United States Congress after a 28-year absence, yet his victory on ...
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    54 mins

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