WHAT HE SAID…
July 8, 2015
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
July 8, 2015Most Louisianians deeply mistrust government and think a large portion of every dollar government spends is wasted. The recently completed legislative session accomplished little to disabuse them of that notion.
Fundamentally, Louisiana state government does not have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem. Here are some examples of ways Louisiana state government can save money, none of which our legislature devoted any time to in the session:
1. Executive branch departments are top heavy. They have too many generals and not enough foot soldiers. We need to limit layers of management in each department to four or five with a maximum of six for large departments, allocate one manager per ten staff, and limit clerical staff to 15 percent or less.
2. According to the Public Affairs Research Council, each year Louisiana has 900,000 taxpayer-funded visits to emergency rooms for nonemergencies, such as acne, insomnia, pregnancy tests, infertility counseling, obesity counseling, diaper rash, and examinations for eye glasses. (PAR Report June 2006). It costs many times more to treat a patient in an ER than a private clinic.
3. According to the state’s 2014 Medicaid Report, 3 percent of the state’s 1.4 million Medicaid patients account for 43 percent of the $8 billion in taxpayer money spent each year. That’s $86,000 per patient. Louisiana should crack down aggressively on Medicaid fraud.
4. Louisiana has over 350 “statutory dedications”, which are special funds set up by majority vote of the legislature into which $3 billion to $4 billion automatically flows annually without having to compete with other expenditures, such as higher education and roads.
5. Louisiana state government has 19,000 consulting contracts, according to a Legislative Auditor report issued in May of 2015. We should eliminate 10 percent by value of those consulting contracts funded with state money. The governor should then write all the consultants funded with state money that are not eliminated and ask for a 5 percent discount.
