In The News › Taxes

The non-profit watchdog group the Bureau of Governmental Research has been pushing for years for stronger policies on economic development.

While the audit didn’t find evidence of fraud, the waste is worrisome enough. Tolls have been used mainly for what the Bureau of Governmental Research has described as “far-flung’‘ services, including the three ferries. Only 19 cents of every toll dollar is actually used to maintain and police the Crescent City Connection.

“The proposed hospitality legislation raises a number of questions and issues,” said Janet Howard of the watchdog Bureau of Governmental Research. She cited the imposition of a new district on top of existing ones, the “appropriateness of the proposed boundaries and governance,” and provisions that would allow the board to authorize tax-increment financing districts and other sub-districts.

For real estate developers, visiting the Industrial Development Board of New Orleans and asking for a property tax break is a worthwhile step as they map out financing for their projects. According to an analysis by the Bureau of Governmental Research, the board has rejected only one request for a property tax break since 1997.

Another nonpartisan watchdog group, The New Orleans-based Bureau of Governmental Research was critical of some elements of the Jindal voucher plan but did not condemn the concept.

The Bureau of Governmental Research recently laid out the pitfalls of lax or no accountability. “Under the proposed program, a student could use a voucher to transfer from an average-quality public school to a low-quality private school with no track record or qualifications,” BGR said in a report released earlier in the legislative session.

But Walter Flower, president of the IDB, which has been under pressure from the Bureau of Government Research in recent months for having criteria that are too loose and informal in granting tax abatements, cautioned that the approval was only a starting point for discussion.

The Bureau of Governmental Research and Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans argue that there should be greater accountability for schools accepting vouchers. They are right. The legislation as drafted does not ensure the academic quality of private or parochial schools in the program and does not provide for a process to remove vouchers from schools that perform poorly.

The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana and the New Orleans-based Bureau of Governmental Research both said the proposal needs to beef up accountability standards for any private school taking the vouchers.

The high profile organizations calling for changes to Jindal’s plan included the Council for a Better Louisiana and The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, which said the bill appears to allow social promotion of public school students who transfer to private schools using the government vouchers. The New Orleans-based Bureau of Governmental Research had similar complaints.

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposal to expand statewide a school voucher program that was piloted in New Orleans in 2008 needs a number of revisions if it’s to be as successful as the governor says it will be. That’s according to a new study from the New Orleans-based research organization Bureau of Governmental Research.

BGR is recommending the program be limited to students already attending or heading into schools rated D or F. The group also calls for excluding private schools that can’t outperform the public schools from which they draw voucher students, arguing, “The state should establish appropriate academic eligibility standards and mandate the rigorous testing needed to determine whether a school meets them.”

“It is a very significant, very generous arrangement compared to what most people in the private sector, who are actually paying a lot of the bills, are able to get themselves,” says Janet Howard, who heads the Bureau of Governmental Research, a non-profit research group. BGR has spent more than a year looking at retirement systems in the metro area and expects to release a comprehensive report in the spring.

The task force’s recommendation to renew the tolls is at odds with a report released in April by the non-profit Bureau of Governmental Research, which said the tolls should be allowed to expire because just 19 cents of every toll dollar goes toward bridge maintenance and policing.

Lawmakers also should consider the Bureau of Governmental Research report from last year, which pointed out the basic unfairness of the tolls that are now collected on east-bank-bound drivers.

But BGR President Janet Howard said the city’s decision to drop its efforts to change the exemption rules is alarming.

“It’s very disappointing news for taxpayers that there’s an unwillingness to take on the topic at all,” she said. “There’s a whole range of options, and they haven’t even taken steps to deal with the most egregious examples of over-generosity, where the nonprofit is providing no benefit to the public.”

To its defenders, the 7,000-acre New Orleans Regional Business Park can be one of the city’s most important tools for promoting economic development. To its critics, the eastern New Orleans park has failed for 30 years to prove that its potential can be turned into reality. Instead, it has been the subject of frequent unfavorable publicity because of management turmoil, political squabbles and ethical problems.

As the Bureau of Governmental Research noted, the park has accomplished very little, and businesses that pay the tax haven’t benefited from it in services or infrastructure.