Pre-filed bills cover lots of legislative ground

Area state legislators’ pre-filed bills deal with issues ranging from examining the state’s tax incentive system to determining regulations for the water vapor cigarette industry.
State Rep. Joe Harrison, R-Gray, has seven pre-filed for the session. HB 646 relates to budgetary procedures regarding tax incentive programs.
“What it will do is tell us where a lot of the waste is or the people haven’t fulfilled their side of the contractual agreement between them and the state,” Harrison said.
The state gives away $6 billion in those tax incentive programs, Harrison said. Harrison believes the state could close the budget gap doing away with those incentives that are wasteful, he said.
HB 596 requires the horse racing industry to go through a review process under State Treasurer John Kennedy, he said. Currently, no review process is in place for the horse racing industry, Harrison said.
Harrison has been trying to get state gaming money dedicated toward higher education ever since he got to the state legislature, he said. Harrison discovered that the horse racing commission was supposed to be giving money to higher education or the Board of Regents since the inception of gaming in the state, he said.
However, the racing commission had not been collecting that money. A total of $2.8 million is now going to higher education from just that program, Harrison said.
HB 656 provides for the composition and planning of state development districts. The bill gives autonomy to the parish president and mayors of the area to take advantage of services that will allow for the infrastructure needed to make progress in St. Mary Parish, Harrison said.
HB 543 provides for accountability of nonpublic schools participating in the state’s voucher program. Background checks and the same scrutiny which public schools are put under will be implemented if the bill passes, Harrison said.
Harrison’s other bills include the following. HB 709 provides relative to per diem for members and board of commissioners of levee districts and levee and drainage districts. HB 200 provides relative to the Terrebonne Economic Development Authority. HB 305 provides for an increase in fees that the office of marshal of Houma may charge in civil matters.
State Rep. Sam Jones, R-Franklin, has filed five bills before the start of the session.
HB 349 provides relative to vapor products. That bill is in response to the new industry for water vapor cigarettes, which doesn’t yet have any regulations, Jones said.
“I’m not trying to abolish it. It’s been a good thing to help people get off nicotine,” Jones said.
He wants to make sure a standard is in place to ensure the products’ safety, he said.
Jones is not sure whether he will end up presenting the bill, but, if he does, it will be late in the session, he said.
HB 42 authorizes payments funded by state retirement system experience accounts to certain retirees and beneficiaries of such systems. This bill repeats the cost of living adjustment for retired school employees, retired state employees and retired state police, Jones said. In 2014, the legislature approved a 1.5 percent cost of living adjustment for the first time in seven years, Jones said.
Once state investment earnings go beyond a certain benchmark, a specific formula allows the state to give retirees a cost of living adjustment, Jones said. “The last two years, we’ve had enough earnings to where we’ve met those benchmarks,” Jones said.
HB 94 allows the St. Mary Levee District to become the official agency for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to negotiate with regarding levees in St. Mary Parish, Jones said.
HB 18 would allow the state to declare a holiday for the Black Bear Festival, thus authorizing the St. Mary Parish Courthouse to not hold court that day. Lots of traffic congestion during the festival causes problems in the area around the courthouse, Jones said. This bill also promotes tourism by listing the Black Bear Festival as an official state holiday, Jones said.
Another one of Jones’ pre-filed bills, HB 365, provides relative to ownership of interment spaces in a cemetery in Franklin.
State Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, has six pre-filed bills going into the session.
SB 1 provides relative to servitudes of natural drainage. SB 41 provides relative to the recovery of site restoration costs expended from the oilfield site restoration fund. SB 79 provides for alternative dispute resolution for disputes relating to remediation of oilfield sites and exploration and production sites.
SB 138 authorizes taxing authorities to decline to collect property tax on inventory held by manufacturers, distributors, and retailers if the taxing authority accepts a payment provided by law in lieu of the ad valorem taxes.
SB 139 creates a constitutional amendment to exempt from ad valorem property taxes inventory held by manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, to be submitted to electors of the state if a certain law is enacted. SB 140 creates constitutional amendment to exempt from ad valorem property taxes inventory held by manufacturers, distributors, and retailers if the taxing authority accepts a payment in lieu of the property taxes which would otherwise be due on such inventory as may be provided by law for such purpose.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review staff. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com