LFT President Steve Monaghan,left, and LA Budget Project Executive Director Jan Moller.
The Louisiana Federation of Teachers presented its inaugural Distinguished Partners Award to the Louisiana Budget Project. The award is designed to recognize organizations that work in concert with the Louisiana Federation of Teachers toward goals that both improve public education and serve the larger needs of our communities. The award was presented at the LFT's 47th annual convention in Bossier City on November 21.
The Louisiana Budget Project was selected for this first Distinguished Partners Award for its assistance in the creation of the Better Choices for a Better Louisiana coalition.
“Better Choices for a Better Louisiana could not have existed without the Louisiana Budget Project,” said LFT President Steve Monaghan. “LBP provided the research and energy necessary to change the conversation about how we fund government in Louisiana.”
Thanks in large part to the Budget Project’s credibility, Monaghan said, the Better Choices coalition brought together more than 40 organizations, many of which had not worked together before.
The Better Choices for a Better Louisiana conducted organizational meetings throughout the state, explaining to local leaders how the state’s “hidden budget,” the long list of largely unexamined tax exemptions granted by the legislature, makes it difficult to fund the services that Louisiana citizens depend on.
As a result of the Better Choices coalition efforts, lawmakers took steps toward a more transparent approach to the state budget with the adoption of Act 365 of the 2011 legislature, which act requires legislative committees to review the state’s tax exemption budget in every odd-numbered year, and HCSR 1, which requires the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Committee on Revenue and Fiscal Affairs to study tax exemptions currently authorized by law.
“Those are crucial steps,” Monaghan said. “They will allow us to see what is really going on with the state’s tax exemptions. We will learn which tax exemptions are truly serving a purpose, encouraging economic development and working in the best interest of Louisiana families, and which ones may have outlived their usefulness and can be eliminated.”
Going forward, Monaghan said, Better Choices for a Better Louisiana will continue to work for a balanced and transparent approach to the state budget, depending heavily on the research and resources of the Louisiana Budget Project.
Accepting the award on behalf of LBP was the organization’s new executive director, Jan Moller.