Author: manshipxgr

Published: May 31, 2019

By: Madeline Meyer, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — GOP-lawmakers in the House Education Committee on Thursday backed the governor’s $3.8 billion proposal for public school funding, including the $1,000 teacher pay raises and $500 raises for support staff, as well as the $39 million block grant.

This legislative session has been marked by a budget standoff between the Board of Education and Secondary Education, or BESE, and Republican House leaders.

Although legislators from both sides of the aisle signaled support for giving teachers a pay raise, the main point of contention has been the education budget proposed by Gov. John Bel Edwards and BESE.

Each year, the board sets a budget to fund schools across the state. BESE‘splan, called the Minimum Foundation Program, or MFP, includes a proposed budget of $1,000 teacher pay raises and $500 supporting staff pay increase, and $39 million for public school funding.

Governor Edwards, a Democrat running for re-election in the fall, has touted his plans for funding K-12 education, and last Tuesday, he increased pressure on the House after announcing plans to raise early childhood education funding by $18 million.

On Wednesday, the governor and other school officials rallied on the steps of the State Capitol for passage of their proposal.

“Teachers and support personnel in the schools give so much to our students every day, and we are now one step closer to giving them a pay raise that is long overdue and well deserved,” the governor commented in a press release on Thursday.

Earlier this month, the board’s proposal was met with opposition by the House Appropriations Committee, which advanced a $30 billion state operating budget that would have increased the pay raises to a one-time $1,200 for teachers and $600 for supporting staff. But the additional $39 million for schools was not included.

Read more in the Bossier Press-Tribune.

Published: May 30, 2019

By: Lauren Heffker, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–A proposal that would call for “truth in labeling” of food products, including meat, sailed through the House Agricultural Committee on Thursday. The state’s top agricultural chief and conventional agricultural groups backed the bill, arguing it would protect the state’s farmers and give consumers clear choices.

A similar proposal, which would prohibit companies from labeling their plant-based products as milk, passed the House floor the same day in a 70-27 vote.

“We’re simply saying that what is on the label has to be what is in the product,” Commissioner of Agriculture Mike Strain told committee members. “You cannot manufacture something to sell it using a standard that we know.”

Both labeling bills are sponsored by Sen. Francis Thompson, D-Delhi, who said they aim to protect the state’s meat and dairy industries by identifying the source of food.

Traditionally, agriculture has been one of the state’s economic backbones for decades. But prices for dairy have plummeted and the number of dairy farms in the state has declined rapidly over the last decade. In 2004, Louisiana had over 300 dairy farms, according to The Dairy Alliance. Now the state has around 100.

Supporters argue that the milk labeling bill would help consumers by defining milk as “milk of hooved mammals” and prohibiting plant-based drink manufacturers from marketing almond milk, oat milk and coconut milk as milk.

The bills have received bipartisan support throughout this legislative session.

While opponents of the bill, including plant-based food companies, said the proposed law would violate their First Amendment rights, Thompson and Strain said that could be decided through litigation.

“If we go to court over it that’s fine,” Thompson said. “If they can prove Tofu is meat then maybe I’m in the wrong ballpark.”

Read more in KALB.

Published: May 30, 2019

By: Tryfon Boukouvidis, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Senate passed on Thursday in a 35-2 vote a $30 billion state operating budget for next year that includes pay raises for school teachers, across-the-board increases for school districts and a boost for early childhood education.

Sen. Eric LaFleur, a Democrat from Ville Platte who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said on the Senate floor “I think we have a budget that we can be proud of.”

The Senate Finance Committee on Monday amended the budget bill to better reflect the proposals of Gov. John Bel Edwards and the Board of Education and Secondary Education, or BESE, on public school funding. But the proposal differed from what House Republican leaders pursued.

Earlier this month, House Republican leaders had sent the budget proposal to the Senate after an almost unanimous vote that included $1,200 pay raises for teachers and $600 raises for support workers but excluded the governor’s plan for an additional $39 million block grant for school districts.

Yet, BESE refused to back down from the $39 million state aid proposal.

But eventually GOP lawmakers in the House Education Committee on Thursday backed the governor’s proposal for public school funding.

The Senate-amended budget includes a $140 million increase for K-12 schools, comprised of $1,000 and $500 pay raises for teachers and support workers, respectively, and $39 million funds for school districts.

Read more in The Advertiser.

Published: May 30, 2019

By: Hunter Lovell, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — Nearly 300 abortion rights demonstrators gathered at the Louisiana State Capitol on Thursday to protest the “fetal heartbeat” anti-abortion bill, which Gov. John Bel Edwards signed into law later that afternoon.

The protesters staged a silent “stand-in” outside the House and Senate chambers in opposition to the bill that landed on the governor’s desk after a 79-23 House vote Wednesday.

The law bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is usually around six weeks of pregnancy and before many women are aware they are pregnant. Louisiana’s “fetal heartbeat” law does not provide exceptions for victims of rape and incest.

The law will not go into effect unless a similar Mississippi law, which has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge, is upheld by a federal appeals court.

“In 2015, I ran for governor as a pro-life candidate after serving as a pro-life legislator for eight years,” Edwards said in a statement Wednesday. “As governor, I have been true to my word and my beliefs on this issue.”

Abortion rights demonstrators showed up at the Capitol to fight against the abortion ban.

“These bans hurt women,” said Rochelle Tafolla, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, the abortion rights group that organized the protest. “We’re here to show that we’re against (the law).”

Read more in The Advertiser.

Published: May 29, 2019

By: Tryfon Boukouvidis, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. (LSU Manship School News Service) – The Louisiana House on Wednesday passed in a 79-23 vote anti-abortion legislation that would effectively ban abortions in the state, echoing similar legislative efforts by other Republican-controlled legislatures in the South.

A bill by Sen. John Milkovich, D-Shreveport, would outlaw the abortion of a fetus with a detectable heartbeat, which usually occurs around six weeks and before many women are aware they are pregnant.

Gov. John Bel Edwards, a pro-life Democrat who is up for re-election this fall, commented after the vote that he would sign the bill into law.

“In 2015, I ran for governor as a pro-life candidate after serving as a pro-life legislator for eight years. As governor, I have been true to my word and my beliefs on this issue,” the governor said in a statement.

“As I prepare to sign this bill, I call on the overwhelming bipartisan majority of legislators who voted for it to join me in continuing to build a better Louisiana,” Edwards added.

Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, who presented the bill, said, “In Louisiana, we have a culture of love of life, love of family, and love of God. Nothing is more precious to any of us than the heartbeat [of a baby].”

Read more in KALB.

Published: May 29, 2019

By: Lauren Heffker

BATON ROUGE — Bills that aim to improve youth foster care programs and implement safe haven infant drop boxes in the state are headed toward final votes in the Louisiana Legislature.

A bill sponsored by Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, would establish an extended foster care program for young adults up to age 21.

Louisiana’s current foster care system ages out children when they turn 18.

“Foster care is traumatic,” said a 22-year-old college student who had been in the state’s foster care system for many years.

In an emotional testimony to the House Health and Welfare Committee, she voiced support for the bill.

“I moved around six times. I was even separated from my little sister. I was told that people cared about my well being – but I felt like I was worthless and just another number.”

Under Barrow’s proposed law, foster care would be extended to young adults who are full-time employees, involved in job training and educational classes or who cannot go to school or work due to medical reasons.

The bill previously passed the Senate floor without opposition, and Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat who is up for re-election in the fall, has included foster care in his budget proposal.

Barrow’s foster care bill has been sent to the House floor for consideration.

Published: May 29, 2019

By: Tryfon Boukouvidis and Lauren Heffker, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — A Senate Committee struck down a bill on a 3-2 vote along partisan lines that would have concealed the names of companies that manufacture and provide drugs used in carrying out the death penalty.

The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Nicholas Muscarello, R-Hammond, said this proposed law would have ensured that the identity of the drug manufacturer remained secret.

The bill would have guaranteed absolute confidentiality to lethal drug providers in Louisiana executions. The Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is the only facility in the state where the death sentence can be carried out.

Since 2000, seven people on death row in Louisiana have been exonerated, and two people have been executed. There have been no executions in the state since 2010.

In the committee, at the heart of the one-hour long debate were questions about government transparency versus information discretion.

The bill previously passed the House floor in a 68-31 vote earlier this month.

Michelle Ghetti, deputy solicitor general with the Louisiana Attorney General’s office, spoke in favor of the proposal. Ghetti said that by masking the provider’s identity, the bill could help prevent safety threats against execution drug providers and pharmacies, referring to cases in Oklahoma and Texas.

Sen. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans, who spoke in opposition of the bill, contended that Ghetti was using isolated cases to make a broader argument. “I do appreciate when you come to the committee and drop some of the most inflammatory language possible for maximum effect,” Morrell remarked.

Read more in The Shreveport Times.

Published: May 28, 2019

By: Lauren Heffker and Tryfon Boukouvidis, LSU Manship School News Service

A Louisiana House committee advanced a bill on Tuesday that would set 16 as the minimum age for marriage in the state.

Louisiana currently does not have a legal minimum age for marriage. Minors need parental consent to get married, and if they are under 16 they need parental consent and the authorization from a juvenile court judge.

Under the proposed law, sponsored by Sen. Yvonne Colomb, D-Baton Rouge, minors 16 and 17 seeking to get married would have to obtain the permission of a parent and a judge.

Some committee members did not agree that 16 was old enough and contended that 18 would be the appropriate age.

Rep. Tanner Magee, R-Houma, and Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Pineville, advocated for raising the age to 18.

Referring to a bill that was struck down last week, Magee asked why lawmakers had supported a proposal that would have raised the minimum smoking age to 21, but not a child marriage ban.

Louisiana House lawmakers last Thursday voted down a proposal for a higher smoking age. The bill would have raised the smoking age from 18 to 21 for tobacco, alternative nicotine or vaping products.

“We want to trust [minors] to make the most important decision of their entire lives when their brains aren’t even fully formed yet,” Magee said in the House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure. “I think it’s very shortsighted of us. The more lightly we take it, the less serious people [will] take it,” he added.

Read more in The Gambit.

By: Tryfon Boukouvidis, LSU Manship School News Service

Published: May 23, 2019

BATON ROUGE–The Louisiana House on Thursday voted 73-21 to pass a bill that would phase out the extra portion of the state sales tax that the Legislature renewed last year after five months of partisan tensions to address recurring budget crises.

The proposal would reduce the extra 0.45 of a cent of sales tax by one-tenth of a penny every year from 2020 to 2022 and repeal the rest in 2023.

Last year lawmakers struck a compromise under which the sales tax extension would expire in 2025. This would give lawmakers time to find more permanent solutions to the state’s fiscal shortfalls.

“If you are fine with extracting excessive money out of the taxpayer’s pockets,” said the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, “then you don’t have to vote for this bill.”

Under Harris’ proposal, the state is projected to lose $392 million in revenues by 2024.

The highest ranking Democrat in the House, Rep. Walt Leger of New Orleans, who supports Gov. John Bel Edwards’ position to maintain the sales tax, added an amendment during the debate that would take 0.05 percent of the 0.45 percent sales tax, or $42.5 million a year, to fund early childhood education.

“This is where we need to be investing and this gives us an opportunity to do it,” Leger said.

Read more in KALB.

By: Hunter Lovell, LSU Manship School News Service

Published: May 23, 2019

BATON ROUGE–Louisiana House lawmakers struck down a proposal Thursday to raise the state’s legal smoking age from 18 to 21 for most people. The bill was only backed by 24 legislators while 55 voted against it.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Frank Hoffmann, R-West Monroe, would have banned anyone under 21 from purchasing tobacco, alternative nicotine or vaping products.

Lawmakers already had their reservations about the bill when it advanced through the House Appropriations Committee earlier this month. In an effort to accommodate legislators’ concerns, the proposed bill would have exempted first responders, military members and veterans.

Still, the bill fell short of the support needed to pass in the lower chamber.

A higher smoking age, Hoffmann stressed, would result on health benefits and health care savings. He also cited reports from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids that showed 7,200 Louisianians die from smoking each year and that the state pays $1.8 billion in annual health care costs.

“Folks, this is a health issue,” said Hoffmann, a former smoker, in his closing remarks. “It’s a simple but tremendously important concept. It’ll reduce deaths, make better health, save money in the long run and make life better for many.”

Read more in The Advocate.