Montoucet irked at Edwards’ critics

Those who have followed District 42 Rep. Jack Montoucet’s career as a legislator know that if there has been one constant in his political stance, it has been his criticism of Gov. Bobby Jindal.
From the amount of time Jindal spent out of the state campaigning for President to the methods he used to plug holes in the state’s budget, Montoucet has remained a staunch critic throughout the eight years Jindal inhabited the Governor’s Mansion.
So, when his constituents began to blow up his phone following Gov. John Bel Edwards’ televised address detailing exactly how “devastated” the state’s budget is, the Crowley Democrat’s anger boiled over.
“People were upset like it was his fault,” said Montoucet in a Friday phone interview. “Neither John Bel nor myself ever voted for any of Jindal’s budgets. It was Jindal’s guys on the floor that got them pushed through. John Bel inherited this mess and, unlike our former governor, he’s trying to fix it.
“It got to a point where I just started asking callers if they voted for Jindal,” he said. “If they said ‘yes,’ I told them that they got what they voted for.”
Montoucet has been saying for the past few years that Jindal’s method of shifting money from the budgets of other state agencies to plug holes in others would eventually lead to catastrophe.
“And now the chickens have come home to roost,” he said.
“For two years now John Bel and I have been warning people about this exact situation,” said Montoucet. “Now I’ve received 150 phone calls from upset people. They’re upset with me about a situation that we’ve been put in by Jindal’s actions that I never voted for.”
As for some of the spending issues such as the TOPS program, which provides a portion of the tuition for qualified students to attend college without having to repay it, Montoucet angrily asked, “Did any of the people who’s children flunked out of school offer to repay it?”
He also offered explanation of the possible use of the BP settlement money to help close the gap.
“People just don’t follow the issues,” he said. “The non-coastal BP money is money the state has already spent on things like paying police officers and repairing damage. It wouldn’t take any money away from our residents.”
Montoucet has also been critical for the past few years of the “tax exemptions and breaks that were given to all these companies that are coming into the state and not paying taxes.
“They’ve been living off of us for a long time,” he said. “It’s time they gave something back.”
Though many Louisiana residents knew the state was in the red, Edwards’ speech still seemed to catch many by surprise. He said the speech was necessary because he had receive “devastating facts from our state’s economists showing that we are in an unprecedented position.
“While my predecessor inherited a $1 billion surplus when he became governor, I’ve been left with almost a $1 billion deficit for this year alone and a $2 billion deficit next year,” Edwards said.
He also went on to say that the state’s revenue stream is being strangled by tax credits.
“In fact, we’re paying out more in credits and refunds to corporations this year than we are collecting from them in taxes,” he said. “This is not sound financial policy.”
The governor said some will try to downplay the situation for political gain.
“They will say that our state’s economists are false,” he said. “They will try to downplay the situation saying that we simply need to cut our way out of this mess. If stabilizing the budget were as easy as cutting spending and simply reducing state contracts, that work would have been done. But it hasn’t.”
Edwards said that it was time for citizens to hear the truth about issues such as these.
“I don’t say this to scare you,” he said. “But I am going to be honest with you. No more tricks. No more smoke and mirrors.”