FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – July 12, 2007
Contact: Jason Hebert, 225-202-8698, or Annie Patnaude (202) 349-5880

BATON ROUGE – The national free-market grassroots group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) today launched its Louisiana Chapter and said the chapter’s first goal would be to mobilize citizens against out-of-control spending and in support of tax relief and expanded government transparency. The chapter launch comes on the heels of the close of the legislative session and the passage of another bloated Louisiana budget.

“Taxpayers are sick and tired of bigger and more expensive government, but not better government,” said AFP President Tim Phillips. “Even while millions were squandered on pork-barrel projects and millions more were spent to bloat state government, Louisiana taxpayers were left behind. For every dollar in new spending taxpayers received a measly 10 cents in tax relief. The Louisiana chapter of Americans for Prosperity is going to educate and mobilize those taxpayers and make sure their voices are heard loud and clear in Baton Rouge.” 

“Americans for Prosperity will help us bring fiscal discipline to the state budgeting process,” said State Representative and AFP Louisiana Advisory Board Chairman Steve Scalise. “I’m pleased to work with Americans for Prosperity to bring sound budget practices back to our state.”  

The establishment of a state chapter in Louisiana marks the 18th for AFP. The group has already chalked up a number of major victories on the state level, such as enacting legislation to create “Google-government” state spending databases in Oklahoma and Kansas, helping to defeat proposed tax hikes in Virginia, Kansas, and Oklahoma, and limiting taxpayer-funded lobbying in Texas. AFP has also become a national grassroots leader in the fight against pork-barrel earmarks. In 2006 the group traveled over 10,000 miles to 37 states and 50 pork-barrel earmarks on the Ending Earmarks Express road tour of federal earmarks.

“Americans for Prosperity has been fighting the good fight in other states and in the nation’s capital and getting results through taxpayer involvement,” Rep. Scalise said. “That’s why this relationship is a great fit. I am deeply honored to have been asked to team with such an outstanding, effective organization.”

Among the items on the Louisiana AFP chapter’s policy agenda are restoring the state spending cap, working to curb wasteful pork-barrel projects, and expanding transparency legislation to create a website that would put comprehensive state budget information at citizens’ fingertips. The website would draw inspiration from last year’s successful federal legislation sponsored by Senators Tom Coburn (Okla.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) that instructed the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to build a website for the public to view federal grant and contract disbursements.