The Founders Show

By: News Talk 99.5 WRNO (WRNO-FM)
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  • Summary

  • A look at Louisiana politics from Chaplain Hy McEnery and Christopher Tidmore
    Copyright News Talk 99.5 WRNO (WRNO-FM)
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Politics & Government
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Episodes
  • MLK’s Legacy Lives / Louisiana Live Performance Credits Face Extinction

    MLK’s Legacy Lives / Louisiana Live Performance Credits Face Extinction
    Jan 10 2025
    Hy and Christopher are joined by the Rev. Byron Clay for the first segment. The famed civil rights leader and former head of the national Southern Christian Leadership Conference will be the keynote speaker for the MLK festivities and march in St. John Parish. He speaks about the need for love as an antidote to our broken politics, and emphasizes that the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King remain as relevant today as they ever were. He speaks about his relationship with the King family, and the importance of the holiday. The rally is at 9:00 AM on the MLK Holiday at the Percy Hebert Bldg., 1801 W. Airline Hwy., LaPlace.In the second segment, Hy and Christopher urge our listeners to “ Save the Louisiana Live Performance Tax Credits”. Due to expire in 2025, they constitute almost quarter of the operating revenue of the New Orleans Opera, the LPO, and several other local artistic institutions.In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, one of the few serendipities was a cavalcade of new economic development ideas. Few came to fruition, but one, co-originated by Roger Wilson and Christopher Tidmore passed through the legislature through the tireless efforts of Bill Hines and the late David Voelker. It extended the movie tax credits to live, legitimate theatre. The idea was to create a live performance nexus in New Orleans and throughout the state in theater and live music, featuring our homegrown talent. Since the tax credit only began with productions of over $100,000 in revenue, it sought to create a large performance market where one effectively barely existed, and 50% of the credits were reserved for nonprofits, so that most of the money stayed at home— a protection that never existed in the creation of the film credits.By midsummer 2025, these live performance credits are scheduled to expire, and without a major legislative initiative to renew them, the financial damage to storied institutions like the New Orleans Opera and the Louisiana Philharmonic could be catastrophic.These tax credits are designed to encourage large productions which hire a lot of people, especially “below the line” personnel such as carpenters, electricians, set designers, and others involved in building major staged performances. These are well-paid skilled laborers, mostly in union jobs, In total cost, the program amounts to only $10 million, a proverbial drop in the bucket of the $35 billion state budget, and each maximum tax credit is limited to $1 million maximum per production, so that one entity cannot claim it all.The benefits to nonprofit performing arts organizations have been critical in their continued survival. The live performance credits constitute, for example, almost 25% of the revenue of the New Orleans Opera— and they are constructed to support Louisiana jobs and Louisiana-built productions. For certified Louisiana expenditures, the state offers a 7 percent Tax Creditbetween $100,000 and $300,000. The credit jumps to 14 percent between $300,000 and $1,000,000 and to 18% for certified Louisiana expenditures over $1,000,000. Not-for-profit organizations are issued credits in the form of a "refund of overpayment" by the Louisiana Department of Revenue.More importantly, the credits support local jobs. An additional 7 percent Tax Credit goes to payroll expenditures for Louisiana residents, with even greater incentives for the hiring of students at schools and universities. The public’s (often mistaken) impression is the performing arts Institutions only employ singers, actors, or musicians, yet these incentives have allowed the Opera’s H. Lloyd Hawkins Scenic Studio to hire more than a half a dozen young people each year and train them in skills they vary from electrical repair to carpentry to technical skills. The tax credit support a permanent set building staff of 20, who pack up and reconstruct sets for theatrical productions in 35 states and three Canadian provinces each year. The 30,000 square foot building includes a design studio that has a full carpentry and metal shops, a spacious 80’x80’ paint deck, a stocked prop loft, and a fully equipped sewing room for costumes.Louisiana always hoped to be exporting content with a film tax credits, but we export made-to-order sets and are are paid to re-construct them on stages in other states, thanks to the live performance credits. The profits underwrite the Hawkins studio to construct the theatrical sets for schools, like George Washington Carver, effectively at cost, and the tax credits —in general—allow institutions like the Opera to invite hundreds of school children to watch operas for free as part of the “Schools Night Out” program. Other arts institutions like the LPO and the ballet use the credits to help fund educational outreach, at least in part. Revenue from the tax credits also funds master classes with university students and famous opera singers, as occurred last in Gallier Hall in October with the ...
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    54 mins
  • Errol Laborde & Twelfth Night / Bourbon St. Terror Attack

    Errol Laborde & Twelfth Night / Bourbon St. Terror Attack
    Jan 2 2025
    Errol Laborde, the newest columnist for the Times-Picayune, joins Hy and Christopher for our Twelfth Night/commencement to Carnival program! The New Orleans magazine, editor and producer of WYES’ Informed Sources highlights excerpts from his new monthly “Streetcar” newspaper column in the T-P Living Section, including how he played a role in (re)creating the Phunny Phorty Phellows as “Heralds of Carnival”, and how in 2009 the King of Zulu joined them as guest of honor. Read the inaugural column here!


    Speaking of Zulu, we also talk about Lundi Gras and how Zulu came to meet Rex each year on the day before Shrove Tuesday, outlined in Errol Laborde’s new book When Rex Met Zulu and Other Chronicles of the New Orleans Experience, available at The Garden District Book Shop, 2727 Prytania in the historic Rink, (504) 895-2266.

    Briefly we mention the events of New Year’s Eve, but reserve that discussion for next week's show, when information is more available However, we do point out an upcoming article by Christopher in The Louisiana Weekly which questions: Why the bollards were replaced all at once?

    NOPD Officers Reportedly Asked City Hall to Replace Bollards One-by-One
    By Christopher Tidmore
    Worries that construction would not be finished by Super Bowl may have enabled terrorist attack, as all bollards remained down at the same time.

    A 43 year veteran active duty veteran of the NOPD told The Louisiana Weekly on background that Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s desire to install more attractive, stainless steel bollards in time for the Super Bowl may have left Bourbon Street unprotected from the New Year’s morning Bourbon Street terrorist attack.

    NOPD Eighth District officers reportedly objected to the bollards being taken down simultaneously by Hard Rock Construction Co., LLC to replace the old bollards with new removable stainless steel bollards.

    The process, which began in November, and was scheduled to end in time for the Super Bowl, many NOPD officers worried, would leave most of the French Quarter defenseless from out of control automobiles. Apparently administration officials at the Mayor’s behest in the Department of Public Works rejected calls to replace the bollards individually, block by block, worried that the work would not be completed by February’s big game.

    According to the city’s website, work began on November 18, 2024 on a stretch of Bourbon Street from Canal to St. Ann Streets to replace the current exposed bollard system with “new removable stainless-steel bollards”.

    As nola.gov explained, “These can be securely locked behind each crosswalk. Construction will focus on the first 60 feet of each block where the old bollards are. The road will be taken out and replaced to put in the new bollards. Some sidewalk repairs, like fixing missing bricks, will also be done. The removable bollards will help close the street to cars during pedestrian-only times but will be stored away when the street is open to all traffic.”

    Personal observation by the author on New Year’s Eve noted that as late as 10:30 PM, many of the existing bollards bordering Bourbon Street remained down. Still, as former PANO President (and current President of the Victims Rights organization Crimefighters) Irv Magri told The Louisiana Weekly that, normally, in such a circumstance where no other substantial barriers exist, two police officers would park their units perpendicular to one another, in order to block traffic. The police cars would act as impromptu bollards. Instead, law-enforcement on the scene utiluzed multiple white and orange plastic barricades and fencing.

    The lack of weighty obstruction allowed 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar to drive his white truck down Bourbon Street killing 15 and wounding 35 at 3:15 AM on New Year’s morning. Jabbar, an Army veteran, also had weapons and a potential improvised explosive device in the rented truck, the FBI said. There were other possible IEDs planted nearby in the French Quarter, two of which have been rendered safe. An ISIS flag was reportedly also in the truck.

    The FBI is working to determine the suspect’s potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations.

    Jabbar served in the Army on active duty as an IT Specialist from 2006 to 2015 and then in the Army Reserve from 2015 to 2020, according to three U.S. defense officials. He had deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and was a staff sergeant when he was honorably discharged in 2020, the officials said.
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    54 mins
  • The Top Stories and Trends of 2024

    The Top Stories and Trends of 2024
    Dec 27 2024
    In this final show of 2024, Hy and Christopher examine the top stories of the year through the lens of how they reveal the direction where local politics will travel over the coming decade. We have chosen seven different stories that give a glimpse at how the politics of the Pelican State has irrevocably changed over the last year.
    • The City of St. George in Baton Rouge promises more incorporation to come - will it have a ripple effect across the state?
    • Use of schools as a loophole to limit permitless carry.
    • The fight over displaying The Ten Commandments in schoolrooms may stretch to other states soon.
    • Loss of population brings fears of decline and the elimination of a Louisiana congressional seat.
    • Income tax reductions reverse the legacy of Huey Long.
    • Racial and demographic changes in Orleans and Jefferson parishes promise very different political futures for each.
    • The insurance crisis in Louisiana threatens home ownership.
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    54 mins

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