Session leaves local lawmakers frustrated

The 2016 regular legislative session ended with a lot of work left to do, local legislators said this morning. However, they were able to get some of their key bills passed during the session.
Area state legislators Sen. Bret Allain, Rep. Sam Jones and Rep. Beryl Amedee finished up the regular session Monday night, only to start another special session 30 minutes later to address a projected $600 million budget shortfall for the next fiscal year.
The regular session began March 14, just five days after the end of a nearly month-long special budget session.
Jones, D-Franklin, said “the biggest disaster” of the regular session happened Monday night when the Legislature failed to pass a capital outlay bill, which may stop projects from being done or only partially finished. Local capital outlay projects that could be affected include sewer, drainage projects and water system projects.
Legislators reached a deal Sunday night on the state’s $26 billion operating budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year beginning July 1, The Associated Press reported.
“We passed the only possible budget that we could pass, which is still $600 million short of funding the level of need for our hospitals and our schools,” Jones said.
Allain, R-Franklin, said the budget the legislature passed Sunday gave a good idea of where cuts would take place. The budget underfunded many items, possibly to increase Gov. John Bel Edwards’ chances of being able to raise revenue.
Allain advocated providing more money for TOPS and state hospitals while making slight cuts to other budgets within state government. However, much of what he advocated for in the budget didn’t get in, Allain said. Allain believes raising revenue by $200 million to fund state government “might be easily attainable. Everything else above that’s going to be a struggle.”
Amedee, R-Gray, said the budget was “ever-looming in the background” during the regular session. Amedee’s main focus was on House Bill 1, the spending appropriations bill. HB 1 passed but Amedee voted against it in its final form because she didn’t see many necessary reforms included in the bill to address fraud, waste and abuse.
Amedee said the Senate restored funding to many departments who could handle the cuts, while cutting some departments that already experienced big cuts.
College students are beginning to leave the state because of a “lack of faith” that TOPS is going to cover their schooling, Amedee said.
“That’s really a shame because it could have been avoided,” Amedee said.
Legislators were able to get several of their bills passed through the Legislature.
One of Allain’s main pieces of legislation, Senate Bill 201, got approval from both the House and Senate. SB 201 is a constitutional amendment that implements triggers that would allow constitutionally protected funds to be used for other purposes during times of dire budget shortfalls. The previous triggers “were never meant to be met,” Allain said.
HB 689, Jones’ bill involving city courts in Morgan City and other cities in the 16th Judicial District, has been sent to the governor for him to sign. That bill set up a fund that will allow city courts to choose if they want to use 30 percent of the fees they collect to run their own public defender’s offices. Jones filed the bill in response to lack of funding in the 16th Judicial District Public Defender’s Office.
Another one of Jones’ bill, House Resolution 227, would require a two-year study to examine modernizing school boards structures in the state also passed. HB 995 will increase the drinking water administration fee passed. The bill would give public health officials more resources to be able to effectively monitor drinking water systems in the state, Jones said.
The governor is scheduled to hold a ceremony to sign HB 32, Jones’ bill to provide a cost of living adjustment for state retired employees, within a few days, Jones said. Former Gov. Bobby Jindal vetoed the bill in 2015.
The Legislature passed Allain’s SB 165 and SB 428 to reform oilfield site restoration and orphan well procedures. The bills were aimed at reducing the state’s number of orphan wells, which continues to grow and is a big problem, Allain said. Allain hopes the bill may be an incentive to possibly get orphan wells producing again.
Amedee voluntarily withdrew most of the bills she proposed because she was able to find other solutions to the problems they addressed.
The special session to close the budget gap runs through June 23. Allain said he will consider making cuts to tax credits and exemptions, but won’t raise taxes that affect personal income.
All money bills start in the House of Representatives, so Allain will just have to wait and see what gets to the Senate, he said.
Amedee said she doesn’t plan to propose any tax increases in the special session, and isn’t sure if there are any tax proposals she could vote for because people are hurting during the economic downturn. Now isn’t the time to raise new taxes while families are struggling, Amedee said.
Jones expects “an additional nasty fight” on capital outlay in the special session. Jones and other legislators authored new versions of the capital outlay bill to bring to the special session, he said.