Retirees Could Be Answer for Our State By Steven R. Rainey S.A.F.E. Planning, Inc. October 2004 Some have said that “stupidity” was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. One cannot help but wonder if our state understands that. I was visiting with radio personality, Moon Griffon, this week and he showed me a study that placed Louisiana in the top 10 states for total taxes paid by its residents – that particular study was done in 2002, before the Stelly Plan went into effect. We seem to be at the bottom of every list. Why is it that one of the “poorest states” in the nation has its residents taxed the heaviest? At the same time, we hear cries from politicians that we must find a way to stop out-migration. Why not try something different – why not make Louisiana a retirement friendly state? We could start by repealing the Stelly Plan, and then change the attitude of our State government toward seniors and long term care. The State wants to throw Medicaid dollars at unwed mothers and drug abusers, while doing all they can to deny benefits to our elderly without first requiring them to spend down everything they have worked for. For the next 20 years the fastest growing segment of our population will be people 65 and older. They are estimated to control trillions of dollars in retirement accounts. It seems shortsighted for the State to continue with policies that alienate this group while Florida, Texas, California, and Arizona, for instance, seem to realize that retirees are an asset to their state and take a much different position from that of Louisiana. Space in this article will not permit me to expound, but my thinking is this – we have affordable land for development, hunting, fishing, gaming, relatively good weather, many of the things retirees are looking for. All we have to do is change the political climate. Let’s get the word out that if you retire in Louisiana, buy your home here, use our doctors and hospitals, spend your entertainment dollars here, we are going to be as lenient as the Federal guidelines will allow us to be if you find yourself needing long term care. As a state we can compete with Florida and Texas. We can have Dale Webb/Sun City developments all over our state, and the type of businesses that would move in to support a large retirement industry would employ our under educated work force. It will take time to build our education system in order to compete for the high-tech industries in the future, but the “baby boomers” are going to start retiring soon. Louisiana could be a great place in the sun for these retirees, and the dollars they would bring with them would be a tremendous economic boon for the State of Louisiana – a win/win situation. As displayed in Best of Times

© 2007 S.A.F.E. Planning. Inc.