Recent editorials from Louisiana newspapers:
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Feb. 24
The Advocate on the aftermath of winter weather last week in Louisiana:
Everything’s bigger in Texas. That includes the scale of a tragedy like last week’s winter storm, the reach of an infrastructure collapse that left millions of people without heat and running water for days - and the size of the spotlight on the immediate suffering and on the storm’s costly aftermath.
The people affected deserve every bit of sympathy they’re getting. And the state’s politicians deserve all the scorn that’s coming their way, for setting up a system that left ordinary citizens vulnerable, for trotting out ideological talking points to explain away the crisis, and in one case, for flying to sunny Cancún in the midst of the disaster.
If what happened in Texas is a huge story, though, that doesn’t mean the disaster in parts of Louisiana is less of one.
While the storm’s impact here didn’t make national headlines, it was also harrowing. Ice, rolling power outages and freezing pipes caused massive damage in the northern and western parts of the state. As of Monday, more than 1.1 million Louisiana customers still lacked access to clean drinking water, including residents in Shreveport, Alexandria and Lake Charles and places served by numerous smaller systems.
That’s much more than just an inconvenience. It’s dangerous, particularly for facilities such as hospitals and dialysis centers that need running water to treat patients.
About 1 in 4 Louisianans lack access to drinking water in wake of winter storm
For Lake Charles, the storm was one more devastating blow following 2020’s historically damaging hurricane season. Rolling outages to keep the electrical grid from collapsing cost the water system the power it needed to keep running. With many structures still uninhabited following hurricanes Laura and Delta, pipe breaks went undetected. A manual inspection found more than 2,000 leaks.
Assessing the damage, Mayor Nic Hunter said on Facebook that the severe winter weather was “in many ways was as impactful to the city as a major hurricane.”
Shreveport got hammered too, and after watching the blanket national news coverage of Texas’ woes, Mayor Adrian Perkins vented to The Shreveport Times.
“Louisiana has been treated like the stepchild of the nation during this disaster, and Shreveport has been treated like the stepchild of Louisiana,” Perkins said. “It’s frustrating.”
His issue wasn’t with the state or federal response, both of which he praised (and indeed, Monday brought welcome news that the Biden administration upped the federal match for public assistance following Laura).
Instead, Perkins’ complaint was with the lack of attention paid to suffering in places that aren’t as nationally prominent as Houston, Austin and even New Orleans, which was spared the worst this time.
This is a familiar tale in Louisiana. The same thing happened to Lake Charles following the hurricanes last year, and Baton Rouge after the 2016 flood. Feeling forgotten takes a toll on morale. And, as Perkins pointed out, limited attention can dampen outside support from individuals and foundations for on-the-ground help.
“Texas desperately needs the help, but so do we,” Perkins said. We agree, and urge people in Louisiana and around the country to remember that misery doesn’t respect state lines.
Online: https://www.theadvocate.com
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Feb. 20
The Houma Courier and The Daily Comet on the quality of Louisiana roads:
Louisiana’s transportation chief Shawn Wilson is right about at least two things:
- The state ought to increase its gas tax and use the money to upgrade its deplorable roads and bridges and maybe even build some new ones.
- This is not the year to do it.
Wilson, secretary of the Department of Transportation and Development, advocated for an increase in the state’s gas tax during a video conference last Wednesday.
The proposal has been discussed for years, but the Legislature has chosen not to act.
As a result, Louisiana has a $15 billion backlog in road and bridge maintenance and $13 billion in new projects that have yet to be funded.
Anybody who rides in a car knows how bad Louisiana’s roads are. And notoriously crummy roads and bridges are among reasons residents pay some of the nation’s highest car insurance prices.
Louisiana’s roads look even worse compared to other states, especially those that make excellent infrastructure — not just getting by - a priority and put their money where their mouths are. Louisiana earned a grade of D for its roads and D+ for bridges in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ latest five-year state-by-state assessment, released in 2017.
The gas tax is a good place to go for a chunk of the money.
Louisiana’s roads are primarily funded by a 16-cent-per-gallon state tax on gas and diesel that hasn’t increased since enacted in 1984 — 37 years ago. Inflation has since cut the tax’s value by more than half, the engineering group’s study notes. The state charges an additional 4 cents per gallon to pay the bond debt on several specific road projects.
It’s reasonable for the Legislature to at least adjust the tax for inflation and maybe make sure that happens automatically.
But this is not the right time. The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on families, jobs and businesses. The state is coming off its most active hurricane season on record, with seven storms hitting various parts of the state, some severely. And those issues have helped contribute to state government budget shortfall estimated at $1 billion for the coming fiscal year.
The Legislature has kicked the proverbial can down Louisiana’s crumbling roads for so long it’s become tradition. This year, unlike most years past, lawmakers have a good reason to delay again.
Online: https://www.houmatoday.com
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