Recent editorials from Louisiana newspapers:
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Aug. 4
The Advocate on the live music industry during the coronavirus pandemic:
Many individuals and businesses are hurting badly these days, and each segment of the economy faces its own particular challenges. So the demands for congressional attention and aid can seem overwhelming.
The needs are real, though. And perhaps nowhere is the situation more vexing than in a homegrown industry that has ground to a halt and is facing a long road back.
Live music isn’t just a vocation for some Louisianans, it’s a key ingredient in the state’s celebrated joie de vivre as well as a major driver of tourism. It’s also uniquely threatened by the coronavirus pandemic.
Think about it. The very things that make music so enticing - the singing and playing and dancing with abandon, the big crowds packed into tight spaces - also heighten the risk of viral spread, and fly in the face of safety precautions like masking, social distancing and limitations on gatherings. Behind the scenes, factors such as travel restrictions also make a return to normal daunting.
That’s why, as Preservation Hall Jazz Band creative director Ben Jaffe put it, “venues and live music events are most likely going to be some of the last businesses to reopen,” - that is, if they can hold on until some unspecified future date at all.
The main form of government aid approved in an earlier round of relief, the Paycheck Protection Program aimed at helping businesses reopen, doesn’t address the prospect of lengthy closures with no revenue. Without more targeted help, according to the National Independent Venue Association - a group that represents 27 clubs and theaters in and around New Orleans and Baton Rouge - as many as 90% of its members surveyed could shut permanently.
There are several proposals on the table. The Save our Stages Act would provide $10 billion in grants for venue operators and others in the business, to cover payroll, rent and other expenses through the end of the year. The RESTART Act would tailor PPP loans to small businesses that are likely to be sidelined the longest.
A number of local venue owners, musicians and other industry sorts have joined national coalitions to lobby for these bills, which have sponsors from states such as Minnesota, Texas, Indiana and Colorado - all nice places with vital arts scenes, but none of which can outshine Louisiana. Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Baton Rouge and Democratic U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond of New Orleans signed bipartisan letters to congressional leadership this spring voicing general support for the cause.
We hope they and the rest of the delegation will make it a priority as they wade through their long lists of sectors seeking help. Surely they recognize how much Louisiana stands to lose if they don’t.
Online: https://www.theadvocate.com/
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July 30
The American Press on the state’s unemployment fund:
Louisiana’s unemployment fund is about to run dry.
The fund - which had nearly $1.1 billion when the pandemic made its initial mark in March - now has $382 million and is dropping about $50 million a week. At that rate, it could potentially be depleted by September.
Some 300,000 are now receiving unemployment benefits in Louisiana as public health orders have led to business closures and layoffs.
The state failing to make payments is not an option, said Ava Dejoie, who leads the Louisiana Workforce Commission. That means without a lifeline from Congress, the state would have to take out an interest-free loan from the federal government.
“We will begin borrowing money in September under the current trajectory,” Dejoie told Baton Rouge Advocate newspaper.
And that’s not happened since the oil bust in the 1980s, she said, when Gov. Edwin Edwards borrowed federal money after a prolonged drop in oil prices cost thousands of workers their jobs.
The state isn’t alone when it comes to concerns about running out of money, according to the Tax Foundation.
“Six states, which collectively account for over one-third of the U.S. population, are currently in a position to pay out fewer than 10 weeks of the unemployment compensation claims that have already come in since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic - including those they’ve already begun to pay out,” it stated.
California, which has also been hard hit by the virus, only has about four weeks of benefits before its funds are tapped out, the report noted. Other states with funding for fewer than 10 weeks of benefits are New York, Texas, Ohio and Kentucky.
The unemployment rate climbed from 3.5 percent in February to 4.4 percent as the outbreak began in March, then skyrocketed to 14.7 percent in April. Since then, it’s fallen at a steady rate - 13.3 percent in May, 11.1 percent in June - but there are still significantly more Americans unemployed than before the pandemic.
There’s no doubt the business community and our workers are suffering. Louisiana families want and need plentiful help now to restore their finances.
These are bad times. We just hope the state can figure out a way to pay back the federal government - if it does ultimately take out a loan - without increasing taxes or cutting benefits for our already struggling families.
Online: https://www.americanpress.com/
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