American Press

Rural Louisiana has become forgotten territory, and a new state representative wants to become a lightning rod for letting state officials know it’s time to solve problems in those areas. Rep. Danny McCormick, R-Oil City, will join state Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, who has been sounding the alarm for rural areas over the last four years.

“My lifestyle is rural, small town,” McCormick told The Advocate. He said he wants to become the squeaky wheel that attracts attention to the state’s history of benign neglect.

In 1960, 55.5 percent of the state’s 2.9 million residents lived in small towns, the newspaper said. By 2017, the small town population accounted for only 16 percent of the state’s 4.6 million people. In those areas, that has caused higher unemployment, less income, shorter life expectancy and fewer high school graduates.

Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera has also joined the cause. He told legislators in November the state is at a tipping point and released a list of “fiscally distressed” communities that need help before the issue becomes a crisis.

Purpera said depopulation, property and sales tax declines and the loss of businesses have resulted in the loss of jobs and young people in rural Louisiana. State government has taken over four towns and is in the process of taking over administration of two more.

There are 18 more communities at the edge, Purpera said, and he estimated maybe 50 more are flirting with disaster. McFarland said those realities cost state taxpayers for bailouts and add to Medicaid and food stamps costs. Medicaid is the federal-state health care program for poor and low-income citizens.

McCormick told The Advocate about a lumber company that looked to locate a mill near Oil City. However, the area has seven state roads and the lack of maintenance on six has made it impassable for 18-wheelers. A bridge that has been closed for years has turned 10-minute journeys into 45-minutee ordeals.

“They said no. We’re on an island right now,” McCormick said. “How do you encourage a natural resources group to come in here if they can’t get their produce to market?”

McFarland wants the state administration to talk up the advantages of locating manufacturers in the countryside where property costs are lower, housing is cheaper and environmental standards are less onerous.

State leaders have no coordinated plan, and neither does McCormick, the newspaper said. However, McCormick said after he takes office Jan. 13, he plans to start reminding lawmakers about the costs of what they’re not doing.

We wish him luck in getting the focus on rural Louisiana.