Swirling around the Louisiana brain drain

One of the advantages of living around here is that you feel smarter all the time.

Educated people keep moving out, while the untutored arrive in droves. At this rate, I could wind up among the top brains in the state.

"Don't be an idiot, Gill," you are saying to yourself. "Such a calamity is unimaginable."

Maybe so. But the migration pattern year after year sure provides food for thought.

Latest confirmation of the downward slide comes from the LSU Data Center which reports that, while more people are moving in than moving out, the educational level of the populace continues its decline.

The loss of our brighter sparks is most acute in the metropolitan areas. In 2007-08 Baton Rouge recorded a net loss of 2,000 college graduates, and New Orleans 1,500.

Meanwhile, on the Tax Foundation's annual Business Tax Climate Index, Louisiana has sunk two places to 35, well behind Texas and Mississippi.

A tax system hostile to business might not be the only reason educated citizens are forced to seek employment in other states, but it sure can't help.

It is a long time since New Orleans was Queen of the South. Median income in the metropolitan area dropped from $27,158 in 2007 to $26,838 last year. There is more money to be earned in Houma/Thibodaux, Baton Rouge and Lafayette.

At the same time as the LSU report was issued, the newspaper reported that so far this year 219 people in New Orleans have tried to kill themselves, with 47 succeeding. Our suicide rate is double the nation's. For that, presumably, Katina is largely to blame, although the sluggish economy can only deepen the gloom.

The next day we read that a woman is twice as likely to be murdered in Louisiana as anywhere else in the country. It is not always easy to be Sunny Jim around here. Maybe the Business Tax Climate Index would provide some light relief....