EDITOR’S NOTE: This column was first published the week of Feb. 11, 2019. It is worth revisiting in light of the flap over Gov. John Bel Edwards not including a teacher pay raise in his proposed budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

House Speaker Clay Schexnayder is quite the gearhead, having worked as a certified mechanic before managing and then eventually owning his own garage in Ascension Parish. If you ask Schexnayder, a Republican, about it, he’ll likely start his story where most should — in the beginning.

I receive several reports on various real estate subjects every month. One recent research report that caught my attention was a paper measuring the 50 most dangerous metro areas in the United States.

This week was dominated by the questions regarding the sentencing of political operative Roger Stone. Last January, he was subjected to a pre-dawn raid by federal officials carrying assault rifles. Somehow, CNN was informed about the raid and their cameras captured the dramatic footage of ag…

You don’t put on a tuxedo to go to McDonalds and you don’t get on an airplane to visit your neighbor across the street. It would be silly to take such grand steps to accomplish something quite simple.

The Republican leadership in the Legislature and Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards are at odds over how much money the state will have at its disposal to spend in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

From 1992 to 2007, during the administrations of former Govs. Edwin Edwards, Mike Foster and Kathleen Blanco, the politics behind the state budget process often played out in quiet corners of the Capitol. The horse-trading was pragmatic at times, due to everyone — the administration, House a…

Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards said his reelection would result in continued pay raises for education employees. He also alleged that Medicaid expansion and criminal justice changes (termed “reinvestment”) would produce cost savings for Louisiana. That these claims didn’t pan out explains wh…

Every generation goes through what is called a “Development Fad.” It starts small with a few developments and with their success, grows until often it out grows the market.

Presidential historians will note that the re-election of President Donald Trump was not secured in November of 2020, but nine months earlier in February. In a span of two days, Democrats displayed to the country why their party should not be given political power.

It started Sunday night with an exciting and hard-fought Super Bowl game, which I was happy to see end with the Kansas City Chiefs defeating the San Francisco 49ers.

Twelve years ago in Gov. Bobby Jindal’s first year in office, the newly elected governor called a special session for lawmakers to entertain a package of reform bills to improve ethics in state government.

Lately it seems as if everyone in Capitoland will have something to prove when the Louisiana Legislature convenes its first regular session of the term on March 9. Then again, folks who spend or make money on the mechanics of Baton Rouge’s tallest-in-the-nation Capitol building almost always…

Martin Luther once said, “Nothing in the world causes so much misery as uncertainty.”

As the nation gets ready for a presidential election, the Democratic Party is in total turmoil. Their 2020 presidential candidates are not exciting voters. There is a very large field of candidates, but none of them seem able to defeat President Donald Trump in the upcoming general election.

Who’s obstructing now, Louisiana Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne?

By the time you read this the Kansas City Chiefs have won the Super Bowl, the Iowa Caucus has chosen a winner and the President likely has been acquitted.

In our country, the average American is a law-abiding person who works hard to pay his or her debts, including taxes and student loans. For this type of person, government bailouts are unnecessary. Sadly, presidential candidates do not seem to be interested in appealing to this type of voter.

Louisiana voters began the process of fully embracing Republican candidates around 2007, as registrations revealed a weakening of the Democratic Party and special interests put money behind efforts to elect more conservatives. That’s when voters started sending more surrogates from the Grand…