Recent editorials from Louisiana newspapers:
April 28
The News-Star, Monroe, La., on Wal-Mart:
There are few things most Americans can relate to more than groceries.
That’s why former Republican presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani seemed out of touch with the average American when he was off the mark after being asked about the cost of a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread during the 2007 campaign.
It was the same for President George H.W. Bush in 1992 when he expressed amazement at a grocery store price scanner, which wasn’t exactly new technology at the time.
So it didn’t surprise us that one of the most popular stories at thenewsstar.com last week was a report that Wal-Mart plans as many as four of its Neighborhood Market grocery stores for Ouachita Parish.
While many people claim to avoid Wal-Mart’s Supercenter, the parking lots at the ones in Monroe and in West Monroe always seem to stay full.
Many have also blamed Wal-Mart for the decline of locally owned mom-and-pop stores and certainly the company’s growth during the past four decades has transformed the retail landscape.
Wal-Mart, which didn’t confirm its intentions for the story, is focusing its new growth on the smaller Neighborhood Market stores and the even smaller Wal-Mart Express stores.
They’re certainly a threat to our locally-owned grocery store chains like Mac’s Fresh Market and County Market, as well as chains like Brookshire’s and Super 1.
Grocery stores aren’t destination retailers like those at Pecanland Mall. People won’t drive in from southern Arkansas or Ruston or the Delta to shop for groceries. The Ouachita Parish grocery market isn’t going to grow, so Wal-Mart’s stores, if successful, will certainly take business from the existing stores.
But we like the attitude of Reggy McDaniel, the owner of Mac’s Fresh Markets, who just opened a new store in the Drew community and plans to build a new store in West Monroe even in the face of new competition from Wal-Mart.
McDaniel said he will continue to upgrade his existing stores to offer shoppers more choices and a better experience, and we’re sure others will do the same.
“We’ll be waiting on them, and we’ll compete,” McDaniel said.
When businesses have to compete for consumers’ attention, it can lead to lower prices and more perks, even if it’s just wider aisles, more varieties and fresher produce. They also have to compete for the best employees, which could lead to better pay and conditions for workers.
We suspect all of that will be the case when Wal-Mart builds its new stores in Monroe and West Monroe.
As McDaniel said, competition is the nature of capitalism.
Online:
https://www.thenewsstar.com
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April 26
The Courier, Houma, La., on the economy:
A booming economy and low unemployment rates are nothing new for our region.
News last week that our jobless rates were the lowest in the entire nation for the month of February, though, might have been a bit of a surprise.
We all know how healthy our economy has been - a condition that remained in place throughout the economic downturn that plagued much of the nation and has stayed since that time.
But the lowest rates in the nation?
That’s something even the most optimistic cheerleader for our region wouldn’t expect.
With a jobless rate of just 2.8 percent for the month, though, it is no surprise ours was the lowest in the U.S.
“We have been seeing a lot of activity in our area generated predominantly because of the oilfield booming in the Gulf,” said Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet. “We are an oil and gas service town and we reap that benefit. The great part is the peripheral things we’re seeing. We’re seeing an expansion of our retail areas, professional areas, housing. We’re seeing an explosion.”
As Claudet said, while the active economy is excellent news in itself, it brings other benefits to our area.
The jobs that come with the booming economy keep many of us employed. The industry also fills the coffers of our taxing districts, helping to pay for the public services we enjoy.
The industry, when it is booming as it is now, helps insulate us from even national trends such as the recent slowdown.
As a result, our real estate markets retained and even increased their value even as the markets elsewhere across the nation were thrown into chaos.
Also, the many jobs mean that our region is attractive to restaurants and retailers, services that increase the choices all of us have.
The challenge all of this brings is to fill the jobs that are available. Because so few of us are looking for work, it is extremely difficult for all the oil and service companies to fill the jobs they have.
Still, we have to train the people who are working to be eligible for better, more lucrative jobs. We also have to make sure our young people are poised to take advantage of the excellent opportunities they have right here.
It is easy to take for granted the fact that our region enjoys such incredible economic success. We have to be vigilant, though, that we take full advantage of it, that we and our children are the people who take the best jobs. Otherwise, they will be filled by people who are drawn here by these opportunities.
Altogether, these are great problems to have.
We have known for years that conditions have been historically good. Now, the numbers tell the same tale, bearing out that we are the best in the nation at putting people to work.
Let’s keep it up.
Online:
https://www.houmatoday.com
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April 28
The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La., on budget in crisis:
If his critics snipe at Gov. Bobby Jindal’s frequent travels to key Republican primary states, the reality is that, over the next six weeks or so, E.T. is going to have to phone home, probably a lot.
That’s because, at the midpoint of the 2014 legislative session, lawmakers are widely disgruntled with the governor’s proposed budget. Over the weeks since the Legislature convened, House and Senate committees have seen numerous holes punched in the document, not least the vast amounts of one-time money being used for the operating budget.
As the newly elected governor said in 2008, “That is like using your credit card to pay your mortgage.”
And the concern over the budget is hardly limited to that issue, for as Jindal officials point out, one-time money has been sluiced into the operating budget for a number of years.
The sheer number of expedients and mechanisms needed to move money from one fund to another fund has finally caused enough angst among lawmakers. There’s about $900 million in short-term financing, and that ought to worry lawmakers looking to next year, when they must seek re-election and simultaneously see the wheels come off the state budget.
Colleges continue to suffer, despite the governor’s statements to the contrary. “What we have done to higher education is an embarrassment,” said Treasurer John N. Kennedy at the annual meeting of the Public Affairs Research Council. Two legislators on the panel, a Republican and a Democrat, deplored the ways that money has been shifted and shuffled to achieve a fictitious balance.
Yet what legislators do about it remains to be seen, and it’s not likely to be pretty. The lawmakers cannot raise taxes, even over a certain gubernatorial veto, because it’s a general session in an even-numbered year; the Louisiana Constitution bars that.
So making the books balance will be a messy process, as lawmakers first try to make sense of the governor’s budgetary legerdemain, then come up with some rabbits-out-of-the-hat tricks of their own.
Experience suggests a rocky passage of the budget, with many amendments through the House, but then a pause in the Senate Finance Committee, when the governor will have to phone in. Our prediction, not necessarily a fact, is that the key call will be to Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego, to patch together a solution to what is almost certain to be sharp disagreements in the budget bill between House and Senate.
E.T., phone home: We can only hope for a happy ending, just like in the movie.
Online:
https://theadvocate.com
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