NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry told the audience at the Jefferson Chamber’s Jan. 6 meeting that his administration is going to tackle his top priorities — just as soon as Carnival season is over, that is.
First up, he said, is a legislative session later this month to address crime.
“We have some structural problems with our criminal justice system,” Landry told the crowd of nearly 600 business and political leaders at the Alario Center in Westwego. “We are going to work on things that the legislature can do to help improve the system. The focus will be how to keep people from going to jail, rather than how do we just let people out of jail.”
Landy said he wants to “focus on making sure that bad people who do bad things again and again go to jail for a long time. And those that just make a mistake have an opportunity to make good on that mistake and come back into society and be productive members.”
Landry believes the crime session will help to alleviate some of the pressure in and around New Orleans, in particular, which will allow leaders to focus on other issues.
“Crime is like cancer,” he said. “It will spread, and it knows no boundaries. And then it puts even more pressure on neighboring law enforcement and neighboring criminal justice systems. And so it must be cut out.”
After crime, Landry said his next priority is economic development.
He reminded the crowd that in the late 1990s he briefly served as executive director of the St. Martin Parish Economic Development Authority. In that role, he helped prevent Baker Hughes, a Fortune 500 energy tech company, from leaving the state. It was a win that has paid dividends for the last two decades, he said, and he hopes to replicate it.
“Here in Louisiana, we’ve got tremendous opportunities,” he said. “We have some of the greatest natural resources in the world, we’ve got some of the most fun loving people in the world. During my time in Congress, I discovered that everyone loves Louisiana food, culture and friendliness. And I always wonder why you can find a taste of Louisiana on any menu in any country in the world, and yet our economic indicators — quality of life, health care — are among the worst.”
Landry said his new team is ready to turn those indicators around. A first step, he said, is to change the way Louisiana Economic Development, the agency responsible for strengthening the state’s business environment, is structured. He said he envisions a proactive department that focuses on supporting existing businesses vs. competing to lure outside investment to the state.
“I think that we’re out there trying to catch a fish that may not want to swim in Louisiana waters,” he said. “I’m convinced we should focus on the businesses and the industries that grew this state and made Louisiana great and are here because of the natural resources that we have. If we can make those economic engines flourish, then all other growth will become organic.”
Landry said he’s asked the Committee of 100, a nonprofit business roundtable, to pay for its own study of other states’ economic development efforts and to bring him a report on the best three models within the next 45 days. He cited a recent report that shows economic growth throughout the South but lacking in Louisiana as a reason to make changes. And he’s hired Susan Bonnett Bourgeois, president emeritus of the Northshore Community Foundation, to lead LED because “she’s got a backbone for the change needed.”
Against type, Landry publicly praised former Gov. John Bel Edwards changes to the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program. In 2016, Edwards changed the incentive program’s property tax exemption rate from 100% to 80%. Landry said he’s a fan of the move because he believes excessive tax breaks have hurt local infrastructure and schools.
“I rarely say good things about the last governor, other than that he’s a nice fellow, but his executive order creating the eighty-twenty split was smart,” he said. “Okay, now, I don’t think he saw some of the problems of how he had this split. But I think that having that split is the right way. Because when you bring big projects into a community, they can put a strain on our government resources.”
Landry told the crowd his other priorities include infrastructure and insurance relief.
“I hope that today is only the beginning of many times that I will be able to come to you all and tell you about some of the great ideas to re-engineer our infrastructure, economic development and government,” he said. “We’ll bring Louisiana to her rightful place in the South, so we have a big welcome mat at our border.”
