Steve Waguespack: Issues that could bust Louisiana's bracket

Well, that didn’t last long.
With my NCAA March Madness bracket already destroyed and the talented but unpredictable LSU basketball team abruptly ending their season after coughing up a big lead to NC State, I guess it is finally time to switch focus to other matters.
However, I need to vent first. Kansas is a perennial bracket-buster for me. The years I pick them to lose early, they make it to the Final Four; years I pick them to go all the way, they lose early and badly. Kansas is always the most difficult team to predict even though they always enter the tournament the same way: with an imposing roster full of talent, a great record and high ranking. Perhaps the easiest solution would be a two-year post-season ban for the Jayhawks as punishment for their unpredictability. While I am not sure it would be a popular move back in Kansas, it sure would tremendously help my picks every year and be fitting payback for the Lester Earl episode (Google it).
Speaking of bracket-busters, the highly anticipated matchup between the Department of Education and the Board of Elementary and Second Education vs. the administration over academic standards is poised to be a high profile contest. Teachers recently administered assessment tests with 99 percent participation around the state and generally favorable reviews about the instructions and content. In large part, after a rough early implementation, things seem to be moving along well.
The department’s game plan is to organize an inclusive group of educators, parents and other officials to review the tests and standards to recommend improvements to ensure they adequately meet Louisiana needs, values and expectations. They have also promised to solicit a competitive bid for a new test to be given next year that will continue to deliver on increased standards, give predictability to teachers in the classroom and protect against federal intervention on our state-driven test.
The administration’s game plan appears to be different, instead wanting to throw out the standards and tests and revert to standards and tests from over a decade ago (hope our teachers kept those old lesson plans in a box somewhere).
This March Madness matchup is the equivalent of the new pick and roll, up tempo offenses focused on ball movement and team work vs. the old school Dean Smith four corners offense used decades ago that forced the shot clock to be implemented in college basketball. Old school vs. new school to decide the fate of Louisiana schools.
Every bracket needs a good Cinderella team to rise from nowhere to make a serious run and the inventory tax may be the 2015 version in the legislative session tournament. As a reminder, this uncompetitive tax has ballooned in recent years and the accompanying credit has driven up the cost to the state.
Last year alone, the tax and accompanying credit was close to $455 million and shows no signs of slowing down.
Proposals to just swipe the credit and use it for the budget are rightly falling flat.
This is in large part due to the drastic economic harm this maneuver would cause, as well as the diminished amount of dollars it would produce as a result of inventory leaving the state in droves and assessment challenges that would assuredly increase without the credit.
As a result, many are looking at repealing the tax entirely, depositing millions of savings into health care and higher education and working with locals for a more reliable and economically friendly path forward from here.
Speaking of big, every player in the Kentucky starting five this year is likely to soon be a NBA lottery pick and an instant millionaire.
They are the odds-on favorites to win it all and it is hard to see any team knocking them off their path to the trophy.
Every year, stories are written of their pending demise due to the uncertainty of major roster overhaul.
Yet, every year, they rebuild, restock and reload their roster to achieve high performance.
Similarly, articles are being written about our higher education system facing uncertainty, but there is a quiet confidence by many in the Capitol that by the end of the session the budgets, policy proposals and leadership will all be in place to pursue a higher level of performance.
Coach Calipari spent the entire regular season telling folks how his Kentucky team may not be good enough to compete this year, but now that we are in crunch time they are firing on all cylinders.
We have some of the strongest leadership in higher education that this state has ever seen. If legislators put together a healthy mix of stable funding, increased campus autonomy and smart efficiencies to low-performing and overlapping programs, you may expect higher education to soon be competing at a higher level.
Some teams make the tournament every year and seem like they are on the verge of breaking through, but just cannot get over that hump. The # No. 2 seed Gonzaga Bulldogs are one such team. They have been one of the nation’s better programs for over a decade now, but they have yet to really make that deep run in the tournament many have predicted.
Similarly, our state’s need for a reliable transportation plan has been much discussed over the years and garnered numerous headlines, but has failed to make it all the way quite yet.
This year, LABI will work with legislators to lock up the Transportation Trust Fund for roads, reform the trigger on the vehicle sales tax dedications to start You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.flowing those dollars to roads and reform the state’s Rainy Day Fund to help use some excess capital investments to spur investments in capacity projects.
Collectively, these proposals can put hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure once fully implemented. If the goal is to erase the $12.8 billion backlog, then this title cannot be won overnight.
But, expect this issue to make a bigger step forward this year than ever before and hopefully make a deeper run than previously seen.
Stephen Waguespack is president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.