Today's editorial makes a case that the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce has been a positive influence on the parish's growth.

 

But it's also true that the same facts could support the opposite proposition: The chamber shouldn't worry about politics and social issues so much, and instead should stick to promoting local business.

Now officials are trying to determine whether some form of deconsolidation is needed.

The chamber supported a school tax hike that raised teacher pay in Lafayette Parish. In return, chamber members sought assurances that the parish's standing among state school systems would be improved. A decade later, Lafayette is about where it was then, barely making the top third of the state's 72 public school systems. That's despite the fact that Louisiana ranks near the bottom nationally and that we're a relatively affluent, relatively well-educated parish.

But there's one more thing to consider: How good would it be for local business if every road or bridge project turned into a years-long political fight, and every decision to move a public agency across town required months of debate? That's the way Lafayette seemed to be in the early 1990s, when the parish couldn't and the city wouldn't. When candidates for the new consolidated government came forward, the chamber used its endorsements to extract promises to get long-stalled public works projects moving. And when the government was seated in 1996, things began to happen pretty quickly.

In that case, at least, the chamber offered Lafayette a little civic leadership when nobody else did. Reach Bill Decker at 337-289-6327 or bdecker@theadvertiser.com.