LABI Newsroom.

• Funding Choice is a Matter of Choice

  August 5, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack For the first six months of the year, a constant barrage of state budgetary doom and gloom littered news reports and incessantly occupied the airspace. This political messaging machine was revved up and driven hard to stress… (Continue)

• The Quest for Common Ground

  July 15, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack “I do not like that man. I need to get to know him better.” Abraham Lincoln is credited with this quote that simply reinforces something we were all taught as a kid but too often forget as… (Continue)

• The Deficit That Won’t Die

  June 27, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack No matter what they seem to do in Baton Rouge, the deficit in the budget of state government won’t go away. A legislative session was dedicated to raising taxes in 2015. In that session, new taxes on employers… (Continue)

• It’s Time to “Chill-Ax”

  June 10, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack The school year has ended and children across Louisiana are beginning to enjoy their summer break. My three boys each have their different opinions on the best way to do so. My oldest is soon heading off to… (Continue)

• Beating the Piñata

  May 31, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack Some sobering jobs numbers were released this week. The Houma-Thibodeaux area lost 4,600 jobs over the last 12 months. Lafayette is down 7,700 jobs and has entered its 15th consecutive month of job losses. New Orleans is down… (Continue)

• The Other Side of the Story

  May 20, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack These are challenging times for many in Louisiana, including our employers. The state budget deficit has dominated the headlines for months, with several articles unfairly targeting the private sector to shoulder most of the blame for public sector… (Continue)

• Reputations and Rankings

  May 11, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack Reputations can be hard to earn and even harder to keep. This week, a few important rankings came out that provide insight into some aspects of Louisiana’s reputation. Chief Executive magazine released its annual rankings of the Best and… (Continue)

• June is Too Soon

  May 4, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack Here we go again. This week, the drumbeat is ramping up for yet another special session to be held in June to increase yet another round of taxes. As a reminder, this will be the third session in the… (Continue)

• Jobs Worth Saving

  April 25, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack Louisiana is a sportsman’s paradise outfitted with world-renowned hunting, fishing and countless other outdoor pastimes. Our people clearly understand how fortunate we are to have this bounty of recreational treasures at our fingertips and go to great… (Continue)

• Ready for a New Story

  April 19, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack And the hits just keep on coming. Employers in Louisiana have felt the pinch over the last year of an economy in recession, billions of dollars in more state taxes and a host of new mandates proposed that… (Continue)

• Thank You, Mr. Steimel

  April 11, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack “Louisiana Legends” host Gus Weill interviews Ed Steimel July 25, 1997. This week, Edward J. “Ed” Steimel passed away at the age of 94. While his name may seem unfamiliar to some; he was well known to many… (Continue)

• Questions and Answers

  April 6, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack The myriad of political and policy changes afoot in the State Capitol have dominated many a headline over the last year or so. We have a Louisiana economy in recession, a state budget seemingly in constant deficit,… (Continue)

• Providing Choice is the Best Choice

  March 28, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack Life is about the choices we make. Whether big or small, made in the blink of an eye, or after much consideration; the choices we make throughout our lives tell the story of our very existence. Some of these… (Continue)

• The Eye of the Tiger

  March 21, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack This weekend started off as a rainy one.  The gloomy weather, along with my need for some down time to recover from an illness, left our family largely homebound for a few days. I came across “Rocky IV”… (Continue)

• The Burgeoning Bureaucratic Business of Blaming Business

  March 14, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack The fiscal special session to raise revenues mercifully ended last week. Many individual and business taxpayers were left dangling in the wind as their financial futures were debated ad nauseam. It was chaotic and controversial, filled with… (Continue)

• The Details Matter

  February 22, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack The devil is always in the details. The state government deficit is big and the Legislature is in a special session called by the governor to review his plan for solving the problem. His plan is largely dependent… (Continue)

• The Speech Not Given

  February 15, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack Last week was a noteworthy week. For likely the first time in our state’s history, the Governor delivered a state of the state address to the people of Louisiana to discuss the government’s budget shortfall.  Immediately thereafter, the… (Continue)

• The Mardi Gras Lesson

  February 9, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack In Louisiana, we sure do know how to stretch out a good time. While the rest of the country typically gets back to work shortly after the New Year, we Louisianans have a knack for drawing that holiday… (Continue)

• The Eyes of the Entrepreneur

  February 2, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack The Public Affairs Research Council (PAR), a well-respected good government group, declared in a 1988 report that, “Louisiana’s pattern of increased spending in boom times has resulted in an overall level of operating expenditures the state cannot… (Continue)

• There is No Silver Bullet

  January 25, 2016

  By: Stephen Waguespack Throughout life, we often find ourselves on a quest for that one silver bullet to solve our problems.  The problem with that simple approach is that most of life’s challenges are complex and multi-faceted, demanding a similarly complex… (Continue)