Foster Campbell urged members of the Broadmoor Neighborhood Association of Shreveport last Thursday to support candidates for public office who oppose special interests, work across party lines and take stands that make sense to voters.
In a speech that touched on his seven terms in the Louisiana Senate and his more recent job as a Public Service Commissioner, Campbell said BNA members should ask those seeking office "what they’re going to do for North Louisiana.
"Go to Bienville, Red River or Claiborne Parish," he said. "There’s nothing going on. Even in Shreveport, Monroe and Alexandria the economy is hurting."
A Democrat from Bossier Parish in his third PSC term, Campbell said powerful special interests wield too much power over politicians, preventing Louisiana from achieving its potential.
"Someone please explain to me how this state, with all its resources, can be last in anything. I’m ashamed that we are captive to poverty.
"We won’t do well as long as the special interests have a grip on our politics."
Campbell said major oil companies have helped to erode Louisiana’s coastal wetlands through their production activities but refuse to admit their role or pay their fair share of taxes to repair the damage.
"A processing tax on oil and gas flowing through our state would allow us to eliminate the state income tax, putting us on a par with fast-growing states like Texas, Florida and Tennessee. We could also eliminate the Severance Tax on oil and gas.
"But we are told that if we collect a tax on foreign oil, the big companies will leave. They won’t leave until the oil is gone."
In his hour-long speech, Campbell described some of his accomplishments as a legislator and PSC member. He recalled a celebration last year of the Bossier Educational Excellence Fund (BEEF), which he created from gambling revenues in the mid-1980s to fund classroom instruction in Bossier Parish public schools.
"Today, the BEEF fund has $54 million in savings. It’s the largest endowment for local schools in Louisiana and maybe in the country. The school board can only spend the interest and not the principal, and only in the classroom."
Campbell also described a 2005 breakthrough at the PSC, when he helped the tiny Natchitoches Parish community of Mink get telephone service for the first time ever.
"AT&T said they spent $700,000 to serve 20 people in the Kisatchie National Forest,"he said. "I told them they could have done it years before for a lot less, but big companies tend to overlook people. You know they want to serve everybody up and down Line Avenue, but what about Provencal?"
Campbell said demand is nonstop for high-speed internet service in suburban and rural areas. Last fall his office announced that the Federal Communications Commission provided $22 million for broadband development in North Louisiana, creating 55,000 new residential and commercial locations for internet service.
"Caddo Parish is getting 1,200 new AT&T locations, 1,100 new CenturyLink locations and 137 new ViaSat satellite locations,"Campbell said. "The total investment is $1 million in Caddo Parish alone."
On energy policy, Campbell said Louisiana utilities are increasingly choosing renewable wind and solar power to generate electricity.
"Green energy is coming, and I’m for it one thousand percent,"he said, noting that SWEPCO is buying wind power from Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas and considering large-scale solar plants in Louisiana.
"Our country needs it," he said. "Global warming is real."
Campbell noted that the PSC recently lowered electricity bills for customers of SWEPCO, CLECO and Entergy after federal tax cuts enacted by Congress in 2017. Savings of $24 million at SWEPCO were passed on to its customers beginning earlier this year.
This Article was published in the October 25th issue of The Inquisitor.