Maginnis: Asleep at the wheel on the tax credit wreck

Published Jun 19, 2012 at 3:00 pm (Updated Jun 19, 2012)

Despite that he often engages in an adversarial relationship with reporters and bloggers, Gov. Bobby Jindal owes a debt of gratitude to Greg Hilburn of The (Monroe) News Star and his severest cyber critic, C.B. Forgotston. On Thursday morning, while Jindal was serenely signing and vetoing the last of the bills passed by the Legislature, Hilburn broke a story revealing a little-noticed Department of Revenue declaration of a tax credit up to $3,000 for the purchase of any of 112 makes of vehicles, going back to 2009. The story quoted House Appropriations Chairman Jim Fannin, who estimated a budget hit of $100 million, saying, "It could wreck us." Forgotston followed up by emailing the story to his subscriber list, including media and politicians, under the screeching headline "Idiots run our state!" That might have helped get the attention of the governor, who, by sundown, had sent Revenue Secretary Cynthia Bridges a letter rejecting her emergency declaration of April 30. The next day he accepted her resignation. In her place, Jindal appointed Deputy Secretary Jane Smith as interim, who—the ironies pile up—as a state representative in 2009 sponsored the legislation on which Bridges based her declaration. Read the full column here.

(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)