Allain did heavy lifting in session

State Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, remained in the spotlight throughout the 2014 regular legislative session with his bills to allow legislators to carry guns in the state capitol and to restrict which entities can sue for coastal land loss.
Seven of Allain’s 14 Senate bills were sent to the governor during the legislative session. Allain described the session in one word as “brutal.” However, the session was extremely rewarding, he said. When asked about being the floor leader in the Senate, Allain said he earned his pay this session.
Senate Bill 469 was one of the major pieces of legislation that came out of the session, and Allain was waiting Thursday afternoon to hear if Gov. Bobby Jindal had signed the bill, he said.
SB 469 defines who has the right to sue for damages on behalf of the state, Allain said. The bill provides enforcement relative to the State and Local Coastal Resources Management Act of 1978.
The act is a federal program that was ratified by Louisiana in 1980, Allain said. The program gave authorization to do work in coastal areas to make sure no one was damaging the coast, he said.
“Those entities who have the right to issue the permits should be the ones who bring any litigation if it needs to be,” Allain said. “The levee boards were obviously not intended to do that type of thing, and all we did was define who had the right to bring those kind of claims.”
The bill was structured so as not to affect the claims of parish lawsuits, but legislators did believe the levee boards had the right to bring those claims, Allain said. “All we did was define in statute things that the Legislature had already created,” he said.
Another of Allain’s bills, SB 651, authorizes legislators and officers of the Legislature to carry weapons under certain conditions. Law enforcement officers and all judiciary officials, who went through post training, were already allowed to carry guns for their own protection, Allain said.
“The press called it the John Wayne bill but really all we did was amend in legislators to have the same rights that the judges, the constables, and the DAs have,” Allain said.
Allain passed SB 344, or “the Catch and Cook Bill,” he said. The bill states that someone can catch a fish and bring it to a restaurant to have the restaurant prepare it, Allain said.
SB 104, states that the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority does not have to get legislative approval to tear down structures, Allain said.
SB 235 requires written or emailed notice of a meeting concerning tax measures to be provided to certain officials and excludes certain meetings of political subdivisions concerning tax measures from certain notice requirements.
During 2013, the Legislature passed a bill that said a local governmental agency had to give the public a 30 day notice before passing a property or sales tax, Allain said. “This was intended for any new or increases in taxes. We didn’t mean to affect the routine renewals,” he said. Assessors had asked legislators to clarify the law, he said.
SB 395 gives an exemption for all governmental agencies to not have to pay money to compensate commercial fishermen, Allain said. “Now they don’t have to pay the same as an oilfield pipeline or an oilfield lease. They don’t have to pay that money to compensate the commercial fishermen that have damages because of the pipelines and such.”
SB 456 was brought on behalf of Terrebonne Parish after officials from Terrebonne General Medical Center asked Allain to do so, he said. There is a moratorium against nepotism across all state government, Allain said. “There was an exemption for all parishes that were smaller than 100,000. Obviously, they’re trying to attract young health care professionals back to the smaller parishes,” Allain said.
The bill did away with the limit for exemptions. “After we looked at it, we didn’t think that there was a need for it at all,” Allain said.
During the next session, Allain plans to focus on advocating for state capital outlay funding for the area, he said. “Just because you got it in HB 2 doesn’t mean it’s going to get funded. You have to get the permission of the commission of administration and the governor’s office,” Allain said.