The reason Bel Edwards chose Dardenne for Commissioner of Administration
14th December 2015 · 0 Comments
By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer
When Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne commenced his quest to obtain UNESCO World Cultural Heritage status for the Mounds of Poverty Point, most in state government thought the task impossible.
“No one would consider a bunch of hills to be on the level of the Pyramids,” one naysayer quipped. Dardenne replied noting that by 1200 B.C., this civilization had reached a level of urban sophistication that far surpassed Southern Europe centuries later—and Great Britain and northern Europe for millennia. Cities were bigger, and the mounds were remnants of a sophisticated high temple and royal culture.
When the “Monumental Earthworks of Poverty Point” was named one of the 23 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization sites in the United States, one of only eight that honor historical heritage in this nation, Dardenne simply smiled. Spectrographic analysis had confirmed that the structures beneath had originally been larger than the Pyramids—and at 3,700 years, nearly as old.
Some of the wealthiest cultural tourists on Earth spend their lives trying to see all 1,031 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. An increasing steady trickle has begun to travel and stay in one of the poorest parts of Louisiana, boosting the whole West Carroll regional economy.
Jay Dardenne has built his political career on noting possibilities where the average politician knows none and then convincing his previously unobservant colleagues to enact exactly such a plan.
Last week, most political pundits concentrated on the fact that a Democratic Governor-elect appointed a Republican to be his Commissioner of Administration, the most powerful post in Louisiana government after its Governor. They quipped that John Bel Edwards nominating Jay Dardenne on Dec. 7, 2015 was viewed as a means to build alliances amongst moderate Republicans in a GOP-dominated legislature, and that is certainly true.
Yet it is an imperfect definition of the talent pool Governor Edwards seeks in Dardenne. He needs someone who can scrub the budget, reform the tax code, and raise revenues at the same time. To paraphrase the Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts, Edwards needs somebody who can convince the legislature to do five impossible things before breakfast.
Considering that Dardenne managed much of this fiscal ‘hat-trick’ as the floor leader who passed the Stelly plan, the Governor-Elect may have convinced the outgoing Lt. Governor (and past Secretary of State and State Senator) that only Dardenne had the experience to fiscally save Louisiana—as a billion-dollar structural deficit threatens to close our many of our universities and hospitals.
It is not as if Jay Dardenne lacked any other political options. Having outpolled every other Republican in East Baton Rouge Parish in the primary, and nearly outpolling Edwards as well in the Capitol, there was an outcry of support for the Lt. Governor to run for Mayor-President of East Baton Rouge Parish. Dardenne said that he was not interested; though, not all believed him.
It became clear Dardenne really meant his refusal when Governor-Elect Edwards named the current frontrunner to succeed B.R. Mayor Kip Holden, Democratic Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, to a senior post on the gubernatorial transition team. There may not have been a quid pro quo on administration job, (as both men contend), but John Bel Edwards certainly possessed enough gratitude for Dardenne’s runoff endorsement not to sabotage the Lt. Gov’s potential Mayoral bid by giving his opponent such a leg up.
Jay Dardenne had another option, though. He could have chosen a much less politically fraught job than Commissioner of Administration, a post which will forever associate him with the new Edwards administration. Some had suggested that the Lt. Governor’s success with Poverty Point—and increasing tourist dollars in unconventional ways elsewhere—equally qualified him to become Secretary of LED, the State Department of Economic Development.
Dardenne had argued for years that LED should be under his purview, considering the CRT links to job creation. The former Lieutenant Governor was a natural fit for LED Secretary, and few would blame any of Edwards’ political reversals on the many spent 100 percent of the time on wooing businesses to the state. Insider sources tell The Louisiana Weekly that the possibility of the LED job was briefly floated, yet the LED Secretaryship was not nearly as interesting to Dardenne being in charge of the budget and state personnel, second in power only to the La. Governor.
And in 2016, Dardenne is uniquely positioned to use that power in a fashion beyond that of any Commissioner in Louisiana history, to potentially refashion Louisiana’s fiscal situation, from ending politically influential constitutional dedications in the state budget to restructuring the tax code to earn more revenue. Democratic legislators (and some Republicans) worry about ending dedications on K-12, the Minimum Foundation Formula, and social spending. [As a political comparison, it is the Louisiana equivalent of cutting Medicare.]
So to achieve that goal, one needs a Republican who garners high approval amongst many Democrats, and still can carry nearly the entire GOP legislative caucus to win the two-third majorities to repeatedly amend the constitution—a tall order for the appointee of a Democratic Governor. When news leaked out that Dardenne had accepted the job, he won approbation from across the political spectrum. Legislative Black Caucus head Rep. Katrina Jackson noted, “He is someone who has experience in state government and knows the operations of the commissioner’s office. I think he would be a great choice.”
GOP Senate Caucus leader Danny Martini echoed the comments noting if the Governor was going to pick a Republican, “Dardenne would be my choice.”
Also, while he still serves at the pleasure of the Governor, Dardenne nevertheless comes to the Commissionership with something of an electoral mandate. He won statewide for two separate offices, indicating his approval with the voters. That gives him a credibility with recalcitrant legislators who might otherwise tune out a political appointee telling them to make politically risky fiscal changes.
He was also a member of the legislative club the last time a moderate La. governor asked the legislature to reform the tax code and, through the changes, raise taxes. As Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, twice Dardenne had to shepherd the “Stelly Plan” through the Upper House. The income to sales tax swap was in its first incarnation even more ambitious. The original measure flatted out the tax code, lowering tax rates while it eliminated sales taxes on food and medicine and still increasing revenues by ending deductions.
It’s what Dardenne originally sought, and he generated enough legislative support for a measure that would have both reduced rates and increased taxes, a Herculean task. The Foster Administration opted for a less ambitious idea that would have performed the swap revenue neutrally in year one, yet went on to raise income taxes revenues over time. It was the primary reason for the massive surpluses during the Blanco Administration.
The repeal of the Stelly Plan, through the restoration of itemized deductions, in the first year of the Jindal Administration led in large part to the billion-dollar structural deficit today; however, it is worth remembering that it was a widely popular move at the time. Simply restoring the Stelly ban on tax deductions will not work. For Dardenne to raise taxes, he must lower them. Without adjusting overall rates, he will not get GOP support, still smarting from Stelly’s simple hike.
In other words, the new Commissioner must oversee an effort to fundamentally restructure the state tax code that both reduces rates—to make Louisiana more competitive against NO INCOME TAX neighbors Florida and Texas—and make sure more money comes out of the mix. Given the Louisiana aversion to property taxes on the homestead, that limits his options. The Commissioner must be creative, persuasive, and daring, and Edwards knew that only Dardenne had these qualities and the ability to reach across the aisle.
Perhaps the best measure that the Governor-elect intended his new Commissioner to make major tax changes was telegraphed through the selection of Kimberly Robinson as the new Administration’s Revenue Secretary. A prominent tax lawyer who once worked in state government, she is well known to Dardenne. She has been tasked with developing a tax rewrite that will be aimed at helping to lessen the state’s continuing budget woes.
This article originally published in the December 14, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
