Reader: Land, mineral assets being mismanaged

Dear Editor:

The byzantine opinions and explanations about our state’s budgetary crisis offer little peace to a reasonable person with an interest in the matter.

When one attempts to get control of one’s personal budget one must equally assess the revenue side of any budgetary equation.

As to potential state mineral revenue resulting from state-owned land and mineral assets, based on news articles, personal knowledge and personal public records searches, it is my opinion that the state, on occasion, has failed to best manage our state-owned land and mineral assets to obtain maximum net revenue.

As a result of my limited personal investigation, I find no clear reason to believe that this sort of mismanagement of state assets could not extend equally to any and/or all other state-owned land areas. If the activities at Bayou Postillion in the Atchafalaya River Basin of Iberia Parish are an example of what the citizens can expect from certain public servants throughout this fiscal crisis, indeed, the public has every right to be truly concerned, demand investigations, make changes and move for accountability when necessary.

With the same energy level and enthusiasm put forth to address budgetary expense issues that so negatively impact numerous state departments, I call upon the general public to contact state officials urging them to use whatever resources are available to fully investigate and audit the Louisiana Office of State Lands, the state Department of Natural Resources, the state Office of Mineral Resources and the State Mineral Board in an effort to insure that best management practices are consistently used in regard to managing our state’s land and mineral resources with the intent to maximize the revenue resulting from those assets.

Paul Maclean,

Houma, La.