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FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2016
thedailyreveille
@lsureveille
Volume 121 · No. 48
thedailyreveille STATE BUDGET
Professor scours tax code to cure budget woes
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
photos by MARKUS HÜFNER
The Daily Reveille
Tyrus Thomas (right) and Ameen Walker (left) in Everything Philly, their new authentic, Philadelphia-inspired restaurant in College Row at Northgate.
RIGHT AT HOME Ten years after his Final Four appearance, former LSU basketball star and entrepreneur Tyrus Thomas is living an “excellent moment” in life with the help of his mentor. BY JAMES BEWERS @JamesBewers_TDR Tyrus Thomas subtly rises from his table to peer out the glossy glass doors of Everything Philly — an authentic, Philadelphia-inspired restaurant in College Row at Northgate, set for its grand opening Saturday. As the smell of original-recipe pizza wafts through the eatery, the 6-foot-10 Thomas motions to a water tower in the distance. The looming reservoir, adjacent to Thomas H. Delpit Drive, is ordinary enough to most. But for the former LSU shot-blocking titan, it’s a fond reminder of his conquered past. Thomas used to live in a duplex directly under that white tower and went to McKinley Senior High School just down the street. He said people from his neighborhood rarely leave, and if they do, they don’t come back. Now, Thomas points to that tower from the restaurant he co-owns with his friend and self-described mentor, Ameen Walker, a 50-year-old Philadelphia native who has served as Thomas’ business adviser and partner for roughly two-and-ahalf years. At an early age, Thomas feared the tower would tip over. But now he just smiles at it, realizing how far he’s come.
“I’ve looked at it when I’m running the bleachers at Tiger Stadium, and I can stand at Tiger Stadium and look down on top of the water tower,” he said. “It’s pretty cool, man, being able to look down at something that you once were afraid of. And now, you’re just moving freely.” Thomas, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2006 NBA draft, is more than a year removed from his last stint in the NBA and recently returned from playing professional basketball in Germany. He’s ten years, to the day, removed from when the Tigers walked into the RCA Dome in Indianapolis for the program’s first appearance in the Final Four in 20 years. The 2006 Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year doesn’t think about his collegiate days often, despite his introspective nature. He’s home, opening a restaurant in his neighborhood and living an “excellent moment” in life as an entrepreneur. At 29, Thomas hasn’t given up on basketball, but he’ll let that sort itself out when the time comes. “I think for a long time with Tyrus, he felt like he left the league wrong,” Walker said. “When I met him, he wanted to get back in the league strictly so that he could leave on his own terms, and people would say, ‘He was a great guy. He was a team player. He was all of this stuff.’ Now, he wants to get back into the league because
he wants to still play. He has the passion for it. “And there’s a big difference, if you understand what I’m saying.” • • • The significance of being a part of the most successful LSU basketball team in three decades isn’t lost on Thomas. He’s done his share of interviews about the topic, the 10-year anniversary of the fourth-seeded Tigers’ remarkable run under then-coach John Brady. Thomas recorded 99 blocks that season, ranking fourth in program history behind only Shaquille O’Neal’s three seasons. LSU defeated No. 1-seed Duke in the Sweet Sixteen and No. 2-seed Texas in the Elite Eight, and eventually fell to No. 2-seed UCLA in the Final Four. Thomas, the NCAA Atlanta Regional Most Valuable Player, collected nine points and 13 rebounds against the Blue Devils and 21 points and 13 rebounds in overtime win versus the Longhorns. Really, all of that is “bittersweet” to him because his team, a fraternity of kids from Louisiana, didn’t accomplish their ultimate goal. Though the Tigers shared a bond in the months following Hurricanes Katrina
see THOMAS, page 7
BY SAMUEL CARTER KARLIN @samkarlin A University professor will spend many of his Fridays at the State Capitol until September wading through the state’s tax code and honing in on solutions to the recurring budget deficits that have plagued Louisiana for years. James Richardson, a business professor who has been at the University since 1970, is no stranger to the game of tax policy. He has served as a fiscal adviser to the state in various capacities for decades. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, he advised RICHARDSON then-Gov. Buddy Roemer in the wake of one of the worst financial crises in the state’s history — worse than the current problems, according to many who were there at the time. The committee he serves on, called the Task Force on Structural Changes in Budget and Tax Policy, was commissioned to report findings on how the state can reform its taxes in the recent special legislative session. The task force comes after years of short-term budget fixes, disparaged by nearly everyone in the Legislature, which caused recurring deficits and bonestripping cuts to important state agencies including colleges and universities. And while phrases like “tax code,” “statutory dedications” and “structural reform” may make the eyes of college students glaze over, they affect the cost of tuition, alcohol and cigarettes and hit those students in the wallet. When the state fell on hard times during Bobby Jindal’s two terms, the former governor took tax increases off the table. Short on cash, the state took away general fund dollars for colleges and universities and raised tuition to make up part of the difference. “Jindal was raising taxes well
see RICHARDSON, page 2