The Next Step In Health-Care Legislation

The U.S. Senate and House passed health-care legislation that will be taken up after the new year to reconcile the two bills into one. The out come of their deliberations should be a health-care bill that truly brings about health-care reform for the better of all concerned and that enhances the quality of life for the people. The country will see if congress is able to discharge their responsibility.

The democrats who control both houses of congress have to move away from the republicans as they have shown they will oppose every thing coming out of the Obama administration. They also have to move away from the extremes on both sides concerning abortion language in the health-care legislation. This is a health-care bill not an abortion bill. The language that bans using federal funds for abortion does not have to be changed or altered as some of the so called blue dogs and republicans insist on. The leaders in the senate and house have to show leadership, courage and not be intimidated.

The final bill should not add to the federal deficit and should in fact reduce future deficits. The prescription drug benefit that was passed by the republican controlled congress during Bush's administration was paid for by deficit spending at a cost of $2 trillion over a 10 year period. The democrats can not repeat that mistake in their health-care bill. The republicans also gave the American people the donut hole that the present health-care bill will close.

President Obama and the democrats have a historic opportunity here. The President should urge the democrats to refuse any campaign funds from any special interest group during the upcoming merger debate of the two bills and the democrats should be willing to do so and devote their time to producing a good health-care final bill. Let the republicans take all the money they want. Too much special interest money has already been accepted by both sides of the isle. The democrats can set an example if they would announce this as their position and stick with it. Elected officials can not deny anyone free speech, but there is no law that says they have to accept campaign contributions.

The President should also ride herd over congress concerning the merger of the two bills to insure that the final bill will provide in the long run results that prove it was the right thing to do for the American people and the country.

Federal Stimulus At Work In Louisiana

The Times Picayune carried a story dated December 26 concerning the rebuilding of a section of Earhart Blvd., in New Orleans that will last one year. The section was originally a part of the State Economic and Development program which financed 4 other sections of
Earhart since 1999 and ran out of money in 2006.

The total cost is $12.4 million and all but $1.8 million will come from the stimulus and other federal funds. Jeff Roesel of the New Orleans Planning Commission said the "stimulus" was like manna from heaven. Jobs will be created for at least a year for the project and bring in added revenue for the city, state and private industry.

This is just another example how states are being helped by the stimulus regardless what the negative voices of state officials have been saying. The work created by the federal dollars will create jobs and help make the mayor and governor look good. The people who use this section of Earhart can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel which was snuffed out in 2006 by the lack of funds from the city and state.

Governors Who Oppose Health Care Reform

The number of people without health care insurance has been increasing each year for a number of years. Businesses have cut back providing health insurance for their employees, discontinued it altogether or increased their premium share. Many small business people have no health insurance at all. The problem has affected people from every state. The issue is before congress and there are many governors who are in opposition.

So I have a question for those governors who are in opposition. Since the problem is not new, why have you failed to address the problem in your state yourself? After all it is your states problem and you seem to have all the answers as to what should be done. Are you afraid that the answer in part is that some taxes would have to be raised to pay for the legislation and you want no part of that. You only want to criticize others who have the courage to address the situation. Your ideology would have to give way to fact to take care of this problem and you do not have the courage to challenge your warped ideology. It would also mean hard choices for you and your state and you want no part of that either.

Some governors have also lied about the health care legislation before congress and some special interest groups have also done the same thing. If the opposition prevails maybe its time for congress to wash their hands of the matter and tell the governors and states to handle their own states problem without any help from the congress or federal government. That way the governors and states could do the job they are responsible for in the first place. As of the present time they deserve a big fat "F" on the subject.

The State of Louisiana

Former President George Bush, U.S. Senator John McCain and many other republicans said over and over last year that "the U.S. economy was fundamentally sound," at a time when the economy was falling apart and job losses were at record levels. They were wrong and out of touch with reality. Louisiana Governor Jindal has joined the ranks of the republican ditto heads in not understanding the real problem facing the people of Louisiana because of his ideology. Elected officials who govern by ideology will not allow themselves to understand what is happening on the ground floor.

Jindal has been saying the state's economy has out performed the nation and the south. He points to the unemployment rate in Louisiana being lower than the national rate but is silent on the fact that the state unemployment rate is up almost two percentage points from last year. State sales taxes, corporate income taxes and individual income taxes are down and playing havoc with the state budget.

The latest report published in the Times Picayune dated 12/18, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Louisiana posted the weakest showing of any state when it comes to personal income growth during the third quarter and declined by 0.4% from the second quarter. Louisiana was only one of four states that saw a decline during the third quarter. It was pointed out earlier in politidose that median household income in Louisiana dropped 7.8% in 2008 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The downward spiral continues. The Louisiana department of Social Services latest report shows the number of state households receiving food stamps has increased 24% over the last two years. The Louisiana Workforce Commission reports the number of people collecting unemployment checks in Louisiana has more than doubled in the past year. None of these numbers are positive for the people of Louisiana despite Mr. Jindal's pronouncements.

Louisiana's fast talking governor has the same problem as the republican ditto heads, their priority is not the advancement of the quality of life for the working people. Trickle down economics failed for the third time under George W. Bush's administration and like Bush, Jindal has no real economic plan for the state because of his ideology. His administration has to keep adjusting the projected state budget deficits because he has no real plan to deal with the cause of the problem. Jindal will continue his record out of state visits to raise funds for a run at a national office and in the process fore-go any plans to really deal with the plight of the people.

Just in the last few days his administration discovered the present budget that ends June 30 has an additional deficit of $248 million that has to be closed. State colleges also reported they want to be free to raise school tuition on their own authority to the southern average. So called conservative republican officials have the same ditto head mentality. They continue to talk no new taxes and then stick it to the average worker a hundred different ways. The negative numbers show Jindal is succeeding in the continuation of the ditto head ideology at the expense of the average worker. That says it all.

Tea Parties: The Real Thing Or Just Decaff

The right wing republicans and journalists that have been promoting the tax and health care tea parties have no kick, nor do those that participate. Their rhetoric toward President Obama has been vile and un American. They share a problem with all those who oppose health care reform but not to the same right wing extent.

While Congress is debating health care and the regulation of financial institutions, the special interest groups sponsored by lobbyist and corporate America are spending billions of dollars on advertising and campaign contributions while Congress is debating the matter. They even lie in their advertising but the tea party supporters are silent to this buying of congress. Does the public really understand what has been taking place in our system of government? The people who are buying Congress are being given a free ride. We have already experienced first hand how the misuse of wealth has created the terrible economic conditions the country is faced with today.

The actions of the conservative right wing should be of great concern to all Americans because they want to see America fail under the Obama administration at all cost, even if it means more economic hardships for the people. It reminds me of the hatred the right wingers in Dallas openly displayed for President Kennedy on the day he arrived there on November 22, 1963.

The people need to think hard about what is happening. The future is on the line.

Exxon-Mobil Purchase of XTO Energy

Exxon-Mobil the worlds largest publicly traded oil company has agreed to purchase XTO Energy for $29 billion according to a report out of the Associated Press. XTO claims about 45 trillion cubic feet of natural gas much of it trapped in shale formations which Technology has made much cheaper to produce.

Exxon-Mobil is counting on natural gas to replace coal and other types of fuel to lower the environmental impact those other fuels have on the environment. Congress should step in and deny this purchase. If this buy out is allowed to go through it will allow Exxon-Mobil to eliminate competition and that will cause higher prices for the consumer.

Exxon bought Mobil in 1999 for $75 billion and that buy out did not result in one additional well being drilled or produced of the combined two companies. It simply eliminated competition, was a factor in $150 barrel oil and produced record bonuses for Exxon-Mobil executives. The major companies like Exxon-Mobil want to dominate the natural gas industry to keep prices high. Natural gas closed on 12/15 at $5.42, not long ago it was over $13. They want to get that price back up to take advantage of invironmental concerns so the big boys will continue to eliminate competition.

Boone Pickens, the oil man who spent lots of money advertising his wind farm idea to produce electricity and natural gas to run automobiles has for now shut down that project because he said the price of natural gas is too low. Remember this is the same Mr. Pickens who said gasoline should be selling for $4.00 gallon. Can anyone remember when natural gas was $13 and the fuel surcharge passed along on your utility bill was greater than the charge for the use of the utility.

XTO's chairman and founder Bob Simpson who retired as CEO in 2008 was compensated to the tune of $53.5 million last year, one of the highest paid executives in the United States the report also stated. The Congress can not let big oil do to natural gas what they have been doing to the price of oil and gasoline. Those people will create shortages when ever they want too and manipulate the price.

It is more important for America to go green more than ever before with alternate fuels. Congress should see to it that the oil and gas industry, the banking industry and the financial industry should not have the power of monopoly.

An Economic Turnaround: Job Creation and Fiscal Stability, There Is A Precedent

There is a part of our past that can be used to judge if our country has the capacity to turn around the economy, create new jobs and put our financial and fiscal house in order. We the people have had some bad times and some really bad, bad times like the great depression and the situation George Bush left the country in. WWII was a bad time but was not created by our own hand.

We were taught in school that the Dark Ages could best be described as that period "when learning seemed to stop." That could also apply when our leaders fail to learn from the past. We now find ourselves in a position where action has to be taken that is out of the norm for our usual problems. We don't usually have to bail out our financial institutions at a cost or $700 billion or spend $787 billion to stimulate the economy. That is not the norm for our country.

Learning from the past is the key to the future, so is precedent and that is where President Obama and his administration comes into play. If you are asking yourself why is that, the answer is because he is a democrat. Now before anyones nose gets out of joint let me offer an explaination. It is true that some of both democratic and republican Presidents of the past had administrations where the country and its people did not do so well. However, every piece of major legislation that advanced the quality of life for the people came out of a democratic administration.

Keep in mind that the best economy, best job creation, lowest unemployment, lowest crime rates, record budget surpluses, lowest drop in the poverty levels, the best stock market gains and largest increase in the average workers salary all took place on a democratic President's watch. The only two Presidents to balance the federal budget in the last 48 years were democrats. Medicare and Social Security are democratic programs, where would our seniors be today if that were not available? And yes, the democrats were also better at controlling federal spending. That fact was pointed out in a previous article.

So there is a precedent for President Obama to follow in dealing with the situation the country is faced with. That and learning from the past is Obama's road map to once again move the country and its people forward to new prosperity. With leadership, courage and the wisdom to understand and correct the mistakes of the past all can be accomplished.

The Rosetta Stone to Rush Limbaugh

The news media in every form, printed, radio and television has through the years produced journalists, writers, commentators and talk show hosts with successful careers. However successful, many never achieved respect, truthfulness or the ability to improve the quality of their own profession. Rush Limbaugh is one of those news media people.

Limbaugh is a person who can not relate to another human in a human way because one has to have understanding to do that. His only debating skill is to put people down and that identifies his real problem, that of an individual who is incapable of competing with facts and the truth. Part of Rush's problem is Rush himself because of his feelings of being inadequate. He exhibits traits of not liking himself because he has failed several times at staying in a married relationship.

Being a negative person is another sign of Rush feeling inadequate. Negative people never explain their rationale for being negative because they hide from the facts and the truths. That is the reason Rush attacked democrats during the 8 years George W. Bush ran the country. He could not find any accomplishments by Mr. Bush so his real character problem came out and his negative comments were aimed at democrats.

The loud outgoing volume of Rush's speech is to project confidence but it is to mask the low esteem he actually has for himself because of feeling inadequate. He appears to be getting more and more obese with every new picture shown. That is a tell tale sign of a man who is troubled with himself.

Many of Rush's comments have also been cruel toward other people. That is the ultimate sign of his weakness as a person and his inability to cope. Recently Rush called U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu a prostitute for adding money to health care legislation that would close a medicaid gap in Louisiana's health system. His use of the word is an indication that is how he feels about himself. Another example is accusing those democrats who did not support the unnecessary war in Iraq of cutting and running. Rush is familiar with the words cut and run because that is what he did during his generations war. It all comes back to his feeling of being inadequate and his lack of character.

The bottom line is Limbaugh has a popular show but has contributed very little for the audience he plays too and has been a negative voice in the news media, that form of communication that could do so much good and have a positive impact on people's lives for the better. That is truly a sad story about a sad person named Rush Limbaugh.

The Environment: Pollution, Global Warming, Coastal Erosion, Toxic Chemicals and etc.

Global warming is in the news and many countries around the world have already announced what they intend to do about it and in fact have already committed to reduce emissions that scientist say are causing the problem. And then we have those who do not believe in global warming and etc., and in fact want nothing to do with it. No caps, no new rules or regulations, no mandates or any thing else. The status quo should remain.

The debate going on has over looked the real problem. And that is holding those responsible and liable for polluting the atmosphere, the air we breathe and releasing toxic chemicals into the earth and water supply and coastal erosion. If none of those things have an impact on global warming so what? Those responsible should be required to install what ever equipment is necessary to take care of the problem. The debate should center on that issue.

We know for a fact that the building of oil and gas pipelines are the primary cause of coastal erosion and we also know as fact that emissions from chemical plants make people sick and are also fatal at times. Chemicals are leaked into peoples water system that are close to those plants. The standard answer from those industries liable are they can not afford the equipment necessary to make the plants safe. In other words that would take money away from paying those mega bonuses.

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade in an article published in the Times Picayune dated 12/7/09 reported the 10 largest refineries in Louisiana had 2116 accidents between 2005-2008 that resulted in the release of millions of pounds of toxic chemicals into the air and millions of gallons of polluted water into the states water courses. One third of the accidents could be contributed to hurricanes and other bad weather events. It should be noted that even an accident free plant releases toxic chemical into the atmosphere and air we breathe.

Emissions do have an effect on global warming and the environment and because science is involved in both, the polluters want the debate to focus on the uncertainty of science instead of their own liability and responsibility to the general public and the earth we live on. Our political leaders need to focus on enforcement and our environment and global warming will automatically be the beneficiary. Those industries have to be held accountable.

Some Good Economic News

The U.S. Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate for November was 10%. That was an unexpected drop from the 10.2% in October. That is not a great number but is welcomed and hopefully is a sign of better things to come. It was also announced that the economy lost 11,000 jobs in November, the fewest job cuts since the recession began in December 2007. Wall Street was expecting 130,000 lost jobs.

Another bit of good news was that job losses for September and October were 159,000 fewer than reported earlier for those months. That is a big improvement and coupled with the November numbers would indicate the major bleeding in job losses has been reduced significantly. Job creation is expected to still remain weak and that has to be reversed to sustain the good news in the latest report.

It should be noted that most of the $787 billion in stimulus funds have not yet been spent and are still available to use where needed to help in job creation and other areas of the economy. The nation has an active President in Obama who is dedicated to bringing the economy and jobs back on line. There are those who do not like an active President, however, we have seen first hand how Mr. Bush's lack of true engagement in the economy failed to have an active policy and role to deal with the reality of how serious the problem had become. The American people and the country has been living with the tragic aftermath.

When December is over we will have an idea just how much consumers spent this holiday season and perhaps we will look back and be able to say that was the true start of an economic turn around that will be sustained for many years to come.

Bank of America: Pay Back Time For Uncle Sam

Bank of America announced in a surprise move it would pay back Uncle Sam (the taxpayer) the $45 billion in federal bailout money loaned to them under the federal TARP program, that according to a report out of the Associated Press. Also reported, Bank of America said it raised $19.29 billion from a securities offering that , along with cash would be used to repay the money. The action when completed will free Bank of America from limits on executive compensations and other government restrictions.

There is more good news for Uncle Sam. The Bank of America has paid $2.54 billion to the government so far in dividends on the TARP money. The government also received "warrants" in return for the bailout and could receive between $943 million or $2.5 billion for the "warrants" when repurchased by Bank of America the report also stated.

What is most important is that the federal government put this and future TARP money payback to good use and start balancing the federal budget and not create one more penny of debt. We have enough of that and now is the time to start putting our fiscal house back in order. Our economic future will be bright once again if we have the courage to take a stand on the issue.

The payback is proof once again the federal government can do things right with the correct approach and safe guards and the best safe guard is for the people to be involved and let their voices be known. The key is Presidential leadership with the courage to change the status quo. There is some good economic news out there, not much, but more than there has been and that is positive. With the right leadership from the President, any problems can be met head on and taken care of. Government itself is only a problem when elected officials make it so. That is not our destiny but our fate and as the first civilization and its people knew 5000 years ago we can change our fate at any time. It just takes leadership and courage to do so.

Note 1: I reported on destiny and fate in a commentary dated 12/31/08 titled "The U.S., Past, Present and Future.

Civilian Court or Military Tribunal for Terrorists

The so called high powered republicans and their ally at the Fox News Network has lined up against President Obama's Justice Department's decision to try four terror suspects involved in the 9-11 attacks in civilian court. They are predicting a possible acquittal, exposure of CIA secrets concerning detention and torture and of course a big propaganda victory for Al Queda. They must have conveniently forgot about Abu Ghraib.

They want a military tribunal as the venue to try those cases but they forgot one thing. Military Tribunals have laws, rules and regulations to follow also. Now we find a judge in Guantanamo Bay's war crimes court has denied a request by military prosecutors to expand their case against a Sudanese detainee accused of being a body guard for Bin Laden. Air Force Lt. Col. Nancy Paul, the judge ruled that making significant additions to the charge sheet "fundamentally" alters the referred charges and would not be allowed. This from a military court.

Once again the anti Obama people opened their mouth too soon and followed their script of opposing anything coming out of the Obama administration. After seven years of failure by the Bush administration to bring those terrorists to justice, the present administration is doing something about it, that is why the republicans are so angry.

Civilian courts are no strangers to trying terrorists and handing down guilty verdicts. Military and civilian courts both have their advantages and disadvantages and in this case the Justice Department should be given the opportunity to pursue the matter to trial. The sooner the better.

I can see the republicans and the people at Fox News turning red when they read Lt. Col. Nancy Pauls's decision. They must have gone bananas.

The National Debt: Betrayal and Devastation

This will conclude a number of commentaries I wrote on federal spending, deficit spending and the national debt during the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. See note 1 below concerning my previous commentaries.

The terrible economic, fiscal and financial situation taking place at this very hour is a result of the deficit spending and debt created by the reckless ideology of Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 during the past 28 years. America is drowning in debt due to their desire to bankrupt the federal government. During those 28 years President Clinton was the only President who learned from the past and reversed the deficit spending of the Reagan-Bush 41 area. The below information on the debt they created along with Bush 43 tells the real story.

The national debt on 9/30/81, President Carter's last fiscal year budget stood at $999.8 billion. Eight years later when Reagan's last fiscal year budget ended on 9/29/89 the national debt stood at a whopping $2.857 trillion, an increase of $1.859 trillion or 186%. Reagan never balanced one federal budget during his two terms in office, he did not send one balanced budget to congress and his administration paid zero down on the national debt.

George H.W. Bush followed Reagan and four years later when his last fiscal budget year ended on 9/30/93 the national debt stood at $4.411 trillion, an increase of $1.554 trillion or 54%. Bush like Reagan never balanced one federal budget or sent one balanced budget to congress and his administration paid down zero on the national debt.

Bill Clinton followed Bush 41 and when his eight years ended with fiscal year budget 9/30/01 the national debt stood at $5.807 trillion, an increase of $1.395 trillion or 31%. Clinton reduced the deficit every year his first four years in office and then ran surpluses his last four years in office and ended up with a $62.8 billion surplus for his eight years. His administration also paid down $453 billion on the national debt.

George W. Bush followed Clinton and when his eight years ended with fiscal year budget 9/30/09 the national debt stood at $11.909 trillion, an increase of $6.102 trillion or 105%. Like Reagan and Bush 41, he did not balance any federal budgets in the eight years he served or sent one balanced budget to congress and his administration paid down zero on the national debt.

Those four Presidents added a total of $10.946 trillion to the national debt since President Carter's last fiscal year budget and Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 were responsible for $9.551 trillion of that total. Those three President were given 20 years to put the governments fiscal house in order and instead created un-precedented debt for America.

Now comes the real sad story. Interest paid on the national debt because of the money borrowed to finance deficit spending during the above time frame from fiscal 9/30/81 to fiscal 9/30/09 was approximately $8.4 trillion. Granted that some of the interest payments covered the previous $900 billion of debt before 9/30/81 but one can see the great majority of interest was created since then and the great majority on the republican watch, in fact 87%.

That $10.946 trillion in debt plus $8.4 trillion in interest adds up to $19.346 trillion. The $8.4 trillion paid in interest payments is wasted money that does not create one job or add to the quality of life for our people. Think of what that $8.4 trillion alone could have paid for. The country's defense budget is approximately $660 billion, social security approximately $640 billion and medicare approximately $500 billion. Those programs could have been extended a lot of years with that kind of money. Because of this massive debt and the terrible shape of the economy the CBO projects that by the year 2019 interest payments alone to service the debt will be $800 billion a year unless steps are taken to reduce the deficit spending and debt.

President Obama, our country and its people have been left with the worst economic, financial and fiscal situation since the great depression and now something has to give. It is time now for our leaders to lead with courage and do the right thing. If republicans keep up their opposition to every thing the Obama administration proposes to move the country forward the President should adopt one of President Truman's famous sayings: To Hell with them, when history is written, they will be the sons of bitches, not I.

Note l: Three part series with recap titled: " The U.S. Economy: Which Party Performs Best" dated 1-27-08, 2-17-08, 2-25-08 and 3-02-08: The Fiscal Legacy of George W. Bush dated 10-30-09 and Federal Spending: Facts vs. Myth dated 10-31-09.

Note 2: National Debt and Interest numbers are taken from the Treasury Dept. on line information.

Note 3: The actual numbers on the national debt and interest paid are not exact. The numbers were rounded off to the first six digits so the numbers shown are lower than the acutal numbers.

Note 4: The $6.102 trillion of debt George W. Bush's administration added to the national debt in just eight short years should really tell the story of just what Mr. Bush did to the taxpayers of this country.

The War Against Those Who Use Terror Tactics

That is a better name than the so called "War on Terror" coined by former President George W. Bush. The fight against those who use terror tactics has been going on now for many, many years and the worst terror attack against America was on September 11, 2001. For the past 8 years we have deployed thousands of our troops at enormous cost in lives and money to fight an enemy we can not see, identify or locate except when they make their actions known.

How many troops do the Taliban and Al Queda have? From everything I have read our government and military leaders don't really know. When we add the 30,000 more U.S. troops that will be deployed to Afghanistan the U.S. will have approximately 100,000 troops on the ground plus what our allies have which at last count was approximately 40,000. We are told the Taliban and Al Queda are hiding in a lawless area between Pakistan and Afghanistan, we do not know how many or exactly where they are hiding because if we did they would have been eliminated in the past 8 years. We say we have a good idea where they are but in many locations we need the help of Pakistan that is sometimes rejected.

Which is the best way to fight this enemy we can not always see or find. Is a massive amount of troops and billions of dollars the right answer. If we don't know how many terrorists we are fighting how do we know when the war is over? Remember terror is a tactic of surprise. That is why they lay dormant for a period of time, regroup, replan and wait for the right time to attack again by surprise. There is another problem that has been brought out many times by our military and other leaders who know Afghanistan. Many Taliban do not like Al Queda, do not work with them, do not like Karzai and would like to see all foreign troops gone from their country and have never been branded terrorists.

It appears to this writer our government officials and military leaders have no answers for these questions or a workable plan that will win this type of war we are faced with. Something seems to be fundamentally wrong if we need a massive amount of troops and money to fight this kind of war, especially being a super power. Our people are still being told by our military leaders we do not have the resources to fight another war at the present time. If that is the case something is even more fundamentally wrong the way we are going about fighting the war against those who use terror tactics.

Another Unfair Property Tax Give-a-way

Another story is unfolding concerning questions about businesses paying its fair share of taxes. This time its Entergy Louisiana and concerns its Waterford 3 nuclear plant in Taft, Louisiana. (St Charles Parish)

In an article by Matt Scallan published in the Times Picayune on November 27 it was pointed out that St Charles Parish assessor Clyde Gisclair has filed a flurry of lawsuits against the Louisiana Tax Commission alleging Entergy is paying far too little tax on the Waterford 3 plant. Gisclair thinks Entergy's properties valuation is low as a whole and that Waterford 3 assessed value should be greater than what it presently is. Its present assessed value by the Commission is $118,405,280.00 and that the Parish's revenue generated by Waterford 3 is $13,532,539.00.

The article points out the Waterford 3 plant was put in operation in 1985 with a fair market value of $2.8 billion. The plant was exempt from property tax for the first 10 years till 1996 when its fair market value was reduced to $735,415,756.00, a 74% reduction and came on the St Charles Parish tax roll for the first time. The fair market value has been depreciating approximately $6 million each year since 1996 and that seems to be the basis of claim that the plant is under valued.

Entergy said should the courts decide the current process for valuing electric utility property must legally change, any resulting tax increase would wind up being paid by its customers through utility bills. Like as if they don't do that already.

The real story here is fair taxation for all. The 10 years exemption and the large drop in the fair market value of Waterford 3 indicates that Entergy was and is being subsidized by home owners and others who paid their property taxes when due. Businesses pass on the taxes they pay to their customers period. They do so in good times and bad times and when it comes to Entergy they also pass along the fuel surcharge to their customers even though those charges in many bills exceed the charge for the utility actually used.

The Tax Commission which is appointed by the governor sets the value for so called "public service" properties. However, Mr. Gisclair who is an assessor knows a little about the value of property. Fair taxation? You will not find it in Louisiana.