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Author Archives: Tyler Bridges
Tyler Bridges covers Louisiana politics and public policy for The Lens. He returned to New Orleans in 2012 after spending the previous year as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, where he studied digital journalism. Prior to that, he spent 13 years as a reporter for the Miami Herald, where he was twice a member of Pulitzer Prize-winning teams while covering state government, the city of Miami and national politics. He also was a foreign correspondent based in South America. Before the Herald, he covered politics for seven years at The Times-Picayune. He is the author of The Rise of David Duke (1994) and Bad Bet on the Bayou: The Rise of Gambling in Louisiana and the Fall of Governor Edwin Edwards (2001). He can be reached at (504) 810-6222.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
‘Fiscal Hawks’ fly to Jindal’s right, denounce governor’s budgeting
The Fiscal Hawks say Jindal’s accounting gimmicks are the reason he has overestimated available revenues every year he has been governor. The emergency budget cutting in 2012—performed by the governor, not legislators—came to $166 million. The 30 House members will begin to flex its muscles again today when Jindal releases a projected $24.7 billion budget for fiscal year 2013 that is expected to be kept in balance by $424 million in accounting gimmicks.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Jindal airs tax plan in D.C. but here at home leaves details to his aides
With his poll numbers down sharply, Jindal has asked donors to finance a $750,000 media blitz.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Nature Center fallow for 7 years: IG urges feds to pull funding
The federal government awarded the Audubon Commission $7.6 million to repair Katrina damage to the Louisiana Nature Center. After years of delays, a new report recommends that the feds rescind the funding. It also notes that the repairs are the city’s responsibility because it owns the land, not Audubon.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Report: Louisiana’s poor pay higher tax rate than the rich
More than twice as much of their income, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Investigations
Bad news for Jindal: Florida, Texas rely heavily on property and biz taxes
Gov. Bobby Jindal has pointed to Florida and Texas as models for his plan to cut income taxes and rely more on sales taxes. But those states rely heavily on two taxes he dislikes: business and property taxes. Would Louisiana rely on a “one-and-a-half-legged stool”?
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Few details so far on how Jindal would pay for income tax cut
The governor would have to raise about $3 billion a year in order to abolish income taxes in Louisiana. As his administration figures out how to fill that gap, business groups are warning against raising sales taxes too high or wiping out their own tax exemptions.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Cutting income tax is the easy part; filling the gap is trickier
Who’s going to pay? That’s the quandary Bobby Jindal and his allies in the state Legislature will face as they seek to dramatically reshape the state’s tax code this year. Jindal said that he wants the Legislature to take the far-reaching step of abolishing personal-income and corporate taxes during the session that begins April 8. […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Economist: Jindal plan to raise sales taxes would hurt the poor
Gov. Bobby Jindal wants to take the dramatic step of abolishing the state income tax on individuals and corporations, offsetting the revenue loss by raising sales taxes by 3 percentage points. That would push the total tax rate in New Orleans to 12 percent, raising concerns that his plan will shift the tax burden from […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Jindal gaining reputation for punishing those who stand in his way
One October evening at the Chimes restaurant in Baton Rouge, former Gov. Kathleen Blanco leaned across the table to Robert Mann. “You do have tenure, don’t you?” Mann, a communications professor at Louisiana State University, gets that ominous question just about every day. Mann does indeed have tenure, meaning LSU officials cannot terminate him without […]