American Notes LOUISIANA

When bouncy Buddy Roemer, 45, took over as Governor of Louisiana last year, he struck the pose of a reformer determined to energize a state with the nation's highest unemployment and one of its worst educational systems. Now he is staggering, jolted by the defeat of his key reform: a tax plan that would have shifted some of the burden from business to the middle class.

Saying he was "disappointed" that 55% of the voters had rejected his plan, Roemer last week proposed laying off thousands of state employees and closing vocational schools and hospitals. That would shrink up to $720 million from a budget already shriveled by a decline in tax revenues from oil companies. It would still leave the legislature with an unhappy choice: extend the 3% sales tax that Roemer's new measures would have replaced or accept severe cutbacks in vital government services.