Analyst: Landry's budget vetoes show "inconsistency" with religious rhetoric

Organizations that support the homeless, the formerly incarcerated, and arts and education programs will lose a combined $4.5 million dollars in state funding.

Governor Jeff Landry used his power of line-item veto to take those funds out of the state's budget. Those vetoes have placed a number of non-governmental organizations in the New Orleans and Acadiana areas in a financial bind. In his veto message to lawmakers , Landry did not say why he vetoed those funds. However, he said that he "reviewed the appropriations to determine if they serve an appropriate government function" and if those funds were "an efficient and effective use of state resources."

However, Landry told the Louisiana Illuminator's Julia O'Donoghue that he cut funding from Catholic Charities of Acadiana because "part of Catholic Charities' mission is to support the influx of illegal aliens into our country."

Landry's decision came just days after he signed a bill requiring public school teachers to post the Ten Commandments in their classrooms. A political analyst says he sees irony in those two decisions.

"To put it mildly, it's an inconsistency," Gambit columnist Clancy Dubos said. "If you're going to talk the talk about God and Jesus, then you should walk the walk."

Dubos says the funding that Landry cut would have funded the same people Jesus taught his followers to help.

"Jesus didn't condemn immigrants or those in prison," Dubos said. "In fact, he said you need to visit people in prison and welcome the stranger. That was one of the fundamental tenants of Jesus Christ's teachings here on earth, and that's why the Catholic Church has consistently for generations advocated for immigrants--welcoming immigrants--and forgiveness. That's the central teaching of the Christian religion: forgiveness."

According to Dubos, Landry is using a convenient interpretation of Christianity to play to his base.

"Forgiveness is not been part of the ultra-conservative politcal creed right now and hasn't been," Dubos said. "It hasn't ever been."

Landry's vetoes raise a philosophical question: Should the government fund non-governmental organizations? According to Dubos, Landry and his supporters are trying to have their cake and eat it, too.

"They make this argument in a very convenient fashion because they only use it to cut out things that advocate things they don't like," Dubos said.

Dubos noted that  Landry and Louisiana's conservative politicians have a habit of supporting non-governmental organizations that align with their political values, such as charter schools.

"While they're publicly funded through public education and they're considered public schools, they're run by NGOs--private (and) for profit, in many cases," Dubos said.

Dubos also points out that the  state government has in the past funded conservative Christian organizations, including anti-abortion groups.

"They're all for that," Dubos said. "They're just not for funding the NGOs that perform services--social services--for people they don't particularly care for or care about."

Dubos points out that Landry is no different than the governor who came before him. Those governor, Dubos said, used the line-item veto to make political points.

"Landry has been known, as have previous governors, to use the veto pen to issue political payback," Dubos said. "He's not unique in that regard, but he's using it pretty often, I would say--more often than his predecessor and some of his other predecessors in recent memory."