Don Higginbotham, " 'I think [Raymond Blanco] wants to be governor. He's power hungry'."
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Over in Baton Rouge, Kathleen Blanco has made some administrative appointments (a friend whose business comes under the purview of the DEQ pretty often tells me that the DEQ head appointment was made under political pressure from the oil and gas industry.
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The governor is involved in another high-profile bid for a manufacturing company that could bring more than 1,000 jobs and an annual payroll greater than $60 million.
The company is concerned about Louisiana's corporate taxes on debt and sales taxes on machinery and equipment used in manufacturing because of the large investment and purchases it must make, the governor said. "It reinforced my understanding that we have to begin the process of eliminating those taxes."
During the special legislative session tentatively set to begin March 7, Blanco is putting the staged elimination of the taxes on the agenda. Thursday, she said she will wait until the last minute to issue the official call in case any legislation that would help nail the company - or other prospects the state is working on - should be included.
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Louisiana's cities aren't ready to shake their dependence on the corporate franchise taxes.
The state's big-city mayors pledged support Thursday for Gov. Kathleen Blanco's efforts to attract more jobs to the state, but asked her not to eliminate the local portion of a tax on manufacturing equipment she wants to phase out in coming years.
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Blanco sets her schedule
Governor Kathleen Blanco will call a special legislative session in March "to repeal some business taxes and perhaps handle a few other matters."
She also has two big conferences planned to study solutions to state health care and economic development.
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Nagin administration under fire again
I don't know how this lawsuit will turn out, but it's a good lesson that people should be very careful about what they email. A few days ago I linked to a fairly flattering profile of New Orleans politician Kimberly Butler. She was forced to resign from the Nagin administration (she was the commissioner of administration) for a variety of stated reasons, but she contends in a new lawsuit filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that it was because she is a woman and a Christian.
The emails she cites are pretty damaging to the administration, and even if her lawsuit fails I don't see how the mayor can justify what some of his top aides were writing about Butler.
Butler claims Nagin's male advisers repeatedly harassed her because she was a woman and a fervent Christian, creating a "hostile work environment" that eventually led to her "wrongful discharge." Evidence of the harassment is included in e-mails that Rice, Meffert, Evans and Forster sent to each other, referring to Butler as a "bitch," a "queen" and "Kimbo," which the complaint cites as a synonym for bimbo.
The foursome also made comments such as, "Why don't you go pray on that," and referred to the act of following her directives as singing "Kumbaya," according to the complaint.
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Butler's complaint also charges that:
-- Nagin participated in a conspiracy to have Butler removed, as evidenced by an e-mail Forster wrote stating that he had given the mayor 90 days to "do something about her," or he would quit.
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-- Rice, Meffert, Evans and Forster objected to seeking Butler's approval on decisions because she was female, again evidenced by statements in e-mails such as "She's trying to assert herself again," and "She still thinks she is queen." Additionally, executive team members stated to each other that, "We need to keep her in the pot or her stock rises over ours again."
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Yesterday Kathleen Blanco worked on the future of public education. In one day she convinced Cecil Picard to commit to another four years as head of BESSE, and she recommitted her pledge to find the money to maintain existing pre-K funding.
It's all in a day's work for the new Governor. In the second story up there she even promised to have a word with the Citigroup officials who made the decision to outsource their NOLA call center to India. We still don't have any word on whether or not she convinced the State Farm people to stay in Monroe, but I really doubt she'll have any luck with Citigroup. If I find out she promised them $40 million in subsidies and tax breaks (maybe free phone service?) to hang around I won't be surprised.
***STATE FARM MOVED FROM MONROE, LA & BLANCO WAS PART OF THE REASON***
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tonight we had the good fortune to dine with the "first gentleman" of Louisiana, "Coach" Raymond Blanco.
By dining with him, I mean he sat in the lounge with quite a bit of liquor and what was undoubtedly a table full of "good ole boys" of whom no one in my humble family recognized. They puffed on big cigars and seemed to be engrossed in some heavy-duty gamesmanship.
The Blanco gang is far from being the “new kids on the block”. Kathleen’s husband, Ray, has been a stalwart in numerous campaigns going back to the early 60’s. The governor-elect and her husband were key players in the Bennett Johnston campaign for governor in 1971.
Ray Blanco knew when to pull the switch. He had been advising the governor-elect and others for too many years not to know that it was time to go negative with about five days to go.
bttt