On Thursday, January 30, the Pelican Institute for Public Policy held its “Solutions Summit 2.0” in Baton Rouge for Louisiana policy leaders. The event brought together over 200 attendees as the Institute shared solutions to expand jobs and opportunity in the Bayou State.
JLF’s Joe Coletti spoke on a panel entitled “In Da Parish – The Case for Local Government Reform” with Louisiana State Rep. Beryl Amedée, John Hendrickson of the Tax Education Foundation, and Ethan Melancon on his last day with the Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC) as he starts Monday with the Pelican Institute. The panel discussed property taxes, homestead exemptions, business incentives, spending and debt limits, state/local responsibilities, pensions, and voter approval for tax increases.
Coletti said these issues are important for North Carolina because once done poorly, they can be hard to fix. Coletti says:
Many of the challenges facing Louisiana are a result of well-intentioned policies that had bad effects leading to new well-intentioned policies that also went wrong, leaving the state with no clear way forward. Luckily, North Carolina has policies and institutions that help taxpayers prevent bad laws by requiring checkpoints along the way. Preventing unintended consequences from new policies is imperative, so those checks are important.
Sometimes, the best way to prevent unintended consequences is to not pass that shiny new policy at all because, once you add bad laws on top of bad laws, it is not an easy thing to undo.
