My sister believes that if you don’t go vote for tax propositions, they’re going to win anyway and that’s why she doesn’t want to go vote. Is that true?

No.

And the fate of most of the Calcasieu Parish School Board’s recently floated bond propositions proves it.

Voters on Nov. 18 rejected all but one of the five propositions, which were meant to fund work at 24 of the school system’s 59 schools, including construction of a ninth-grade campus at Barbe High.

The election results for the propositions:

School District 23 — 20-year, $56.3 million bond issue: 555 votes for, 588 votes against; 11.8 percent voter turnout.

School District 31 — 20-year, $46 million bond issue: 933 votes for, 909 votes against; 10.5 percent voter turnout.

School District 33 — 20-year, $50.8 million bond issue: 918 votes for, 1,019 votes against; 9.5 percent voter turnout.

School District 34 Proposition 1 — 20-year, $41.8 million bond issue: 2,184 votes for, 2,251 votes against; 16.8 percent voter turnout.

School District 34 Proposition 2 — 20-year, $23.1 million bond issue: 2,189 votes for, 2,244 votes against; 16.8 percent voter turnout.

For more info: www.geauxvote.com.

 

Foster took part in recent gathering 

Is former Gov. Mike Foster still alive?

Yes.

Foster, along with wife Alice, joined other former governors and their family members for a gathering recently at the executive mansion in Baton Rouge.

An Associated Press story printed in advance of the event earlier this month erroneously referred to “all four” — instead of “all five” — still-living former chief executives.

The living ex-governors and their terms:

Edwin Edwards — 1972-1980, 1984-1988, 1992-1996.

Buddy Roemer — 1988-1992.

Mike Foster — 1996-2000, 2000-2004.

Kathleen Blanco — 2004-2008.

Bobby Jindal — 2008-2015.

Foster, 87, was born in Shreveport and attended school in Centerville. He earned a chemistry degree from LSU in 1952, served in the Air Force during the Korean War, and worked as a farmer and business owner.

“A life in politics never appealed to Mike Foster; however, in 1986, after ‘becoming frustrated with the non-responsiveness of state government’ he ran for a seat in the state Senate,” reads the biography for Foster posted on the website of the Secretary of State’s Office.

“After fulfilling two very active terms in the Senate, then-Sen. Foster decided that he could get more accomplished as governor.”

He was inaugurated to his first term in January 1996 and to his second in January 2000 — after winning re-election in a landslide.

For more info: http://gov.louisiana.gov; www.sos.la.gov.

 

The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com.