Posted on 11/21/2005 8:45:33 AM PST by Ellesu
The House voted yesterday to kill a reform bill by State Senator Walter Boasso (R-Arabi) to consolidate area levee boards into a regional authority. Boassos bill was far from perfect, since the authority did not impact all of the area levee boards and it only partially shut down the activities of the notorious Orleans Levee Board. However, at least it was a start, a move in the right direction.
The vote was harmful to our image, disappointing to voters that care about the state and sends a horrible message to the rest of the nation. It shows that we are more wedded to "politics as usual" than anything else in our state. It shows that we can not reform our own political system and is so indebted to the Louisiana way of operating that even a hurricane catastrophe can not motivate us to change our ways.
The bill was defeated by Governor Blanco and her Democratic allies in the House. It clearly indicates that this Governor does not stand for reform. What will now pass is the Governors bill to create another layer of government bureaucracy to oversee the activities of the levee boards, a useless expansion of government that will not solve our problems.
Since legislators were not willing to reform the levee board system now, they never will be willing, at least not this group of legislators. We clearly need new representation. Certainly the business community is disappointed. The Business Council of New Orleans lobbied heavily in favor of this bill. They understood how important a revamped levee board system was to the renewal of our state. They understood how important it was to the image of our state.
If we are going to start fresh, we need to change the way we conduct ourselves. Unfortunately, our politicians are not willing to make the changes we need. So, it is now our responsibility as voters to change the politicians that govern us, nothing else will save Louisiana, yet we have to wait until 2007 for another chance.
Wait until someone asks if I care whether NOLA dies.
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