Two Tickets to Taxpayer-Paid Paradise

It’s always a great day when I get to make a thinly veiled reference to an Eddie Money song as a title for a political blog. Check out the video, sound quality isn’t so hot, but it’s great because FASHION! While the song is, in my opinion, a shadow compared to the far more prurient “Take Me Home Tonight,” it still stands the test of time (the song, not the threads). So Mr. Money’s song is about two lovers departing for a trip to the titular Paradise. What isn’t so clear is how Mr. Money actually acquired said Tickets. Were they purchased? Won on a radio giveaway (for which he should be clearly ineligible)? Stolen? Or did he possibly receive them as a gift from a politician? Those questions bring us to our topic today: disclosing the use of gifts generated through taxpayer money.

An Advocate article yesterday reported on Mayor Holden’s reticence in disclosing who received complimentary tickets to the Bayou Country Superfest through the Mayor’s Office. As previously disclosed, I’m a fan of Mayor Holden and believe he’s done great things for this city. With that said, we definitely do not see eye to eye here.

For those who pay no attention to local politics, the City-Parish, Visit Baton Rouge, and State Government generally all chip in to subsidize the massive Bayou Country Superfest put on by Quint Davis, the guy responsible for Jazz Fest in New Orleans. The event usually generates a nice return on the money in the form of taxes generated through hotel rooms, restaurants, bars, you get the picture. The big question is whether the event could provide the same economic bump without the pricey subsidy from the government (read: taxpayers). We don’t really have any way of telling since Quint Davis refuses to say how much profit the event makes. When there’s a knowledge imbalance in a negotiation, it usually favors the expert and there is unlikely anyone more expert in outdoor festivals than Quint Davis. Anyway, that’s all basically background information. The important part here is that, as part of the sponsorship agreement, complimentary tickets are provided to the sponsoring government entities who are then allowed to dole them out as they see fit.

That’s all fine and good. I think it’s a bit of a stretch to get upset about government officials receiving and, in turn, distributing certain benefits to constituents. It happens at all levels of government in Louisiana, from the Governor down. It would be nice if those kinds of things were prohibited, but it somehow got glossed over in the “Gold (Plated) Standard” ethics reform laws the State Legislature passed a few years ago. What IS of concern, however, is when the names of the people receiving these benefits are not disclosed upon request.

In refusing to provide the names, Mayor Holden cited a privilege. I combed through the Plan of Government and the Code of Ordinances and I can’t find anything relative to a privilege to not disclose information (not saying it isn’t there, I just couldn’t find it). The article does mention that some of the ticket recipients were economic development possibilities, in other words people who might be interested in moving or starting their businesses in Baton Rouge. Traditionally, potential economic development prospects are usually not disclosed for fear that competing communities will gain an information advantage over us and up the brinksmanship. There’s actually a fairly regular fight between the news media and Louisiana Economic Development concerning what we’re promising/paying to companies in order to get them to move here. Additionally, the Governor’s Office has a metric ton of carve outs from disclosure laws that also miraculously survived the “Gold (Plated) Standard” ethics reforms of several years ago. Mayor Holden even references the Governor in his defense.

The problem here is that the Governor is wrong, as is Mayor Holden. If taxpayer money is used to secure these benefits (either directly or indirectly), there’s absolutely (<- by the way, my favorite Jindal speech trait) no reason why the recipients should not be disclosed. It has WAY too much room for abuse without disclosure and allegations of improprieties are about the last thing Louisiana, or Baton Rouge, needs. If there's an “economic development” issue, then wait one year or until the recruitment has succeeded or failed, whichever comes first, before disclosing those specific names. In any event, all recipients of these kinds of unofficial benefits from the government should be disclosed, no exceptions. That's our citizen's privilege.

Random Thought: How poorly does it reflect on our community when traffic engineers had to come out to the Mall of Louisiana and replace those orange and white lane dividers intended to keep traffic flowing smoothly with concrete super curbs? It seems way too many people HAD TO GET TO THE MALL NOW!!! As a result of the headlong rush to consumptive nirvana, most of the poor orange and white dividers looked like they had ended up on the business end of Mjolnir at one point in time or another. Seriously people, it’s like 200 meters to the next entrance… this is why we can’t have nice things.

See you next week, Metro Council is back in action!

Answers To Last Week’s Matching Game – 1: D, 2: E, 3: B, 4: C, 5: F, 6: A. Congrats if anyone got them all correct. Looking forward to seeing what new expenditures show up this election cycle.