Robert Travis Scott-President Of The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR)
October 30, 2012
By: Amy Connor-Flores
Robert Travis Scott is currently the president of the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR). Before joining PAR, Scott worked for 14 years at The Times-Picayune.
It was here where he received awards for his political, business and investigative reporting. Scott also served as a business editor, columnist, and investigative journalist for a non for profit think tank based in Washington, D.C.
PAR (Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana) was founded in 1950 and is a private, nonprofit, non-partisan public policy research organization. It focuses on the most pressing problems of state and local governments in Louisiana. Through PAR’s research, the organization recommends ways of solving these problems.
Although PAR does not lobby, PAR’s research gets results. Many significant governmental reforms can be traced to PAR recommendations. Through its extensive research and public information programs, PAR contributes constructive ideas and solutions to the mainstream political thinking.
The primary purpose of PAR is to educate the media and public officials’ accurate and objective information on these problems and well as specific recommendations to solve these issues.
PAR differs from other organizations through the following:
- PAR is an independent, unbiased source of information on state and local government issues.
- PAR’s only business is research.
- PAR does not lobby or have a PAC, believing that the best way to improve government operations in Louisiana is through an informed citizenry. Louisiana government will never be any better than its citizens demand.
- PAR’s recommendations are not determined by its members or its board, but by the findings of its research studies. PAR’s research program is not designed to support a predetermined point of view but to find the truth.
- PAR can and does tackle issues others can’t or won’t.
- No other group does what PAR does the way PAR does it.
Louisiana has a significant number of far-reaching problems that require study. PAR has a full research agenda planned. Permeating the list are problems that have plagued the state for a long time: the tax structure, education and governmental ethics. Louisiana needs PAR today for the same reason it did 50 years ago.
PAR also prints out a guide to voting as well as information on the amendments being proposed for that specific election. They also provide an updated handbook known as “The PAR Guide to Louisiana Legislature”
To order additional guides contact PAR at (225) 926-8414 and for more information on PAR please visit their website at
PAR Guide to the 2012 Constitutional Amendments
1. Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly
2. Strict Scrutiny Review for Gun Laws
3. Earlier Notice of Public Retirement Bills
4. Homestead Exemption for Veterans’ Spouses
5. Forfeiture of Public Retirement Benefits
6. Property Tax Exemption Authority for New Iberia
7. Membership of Certain Boards and Commissions
8. Non-Manufacturing Tax Exemption Program
9. More Notice for Crime Prevention District Bills
