LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau

Published: Nov. 1, 2022

By: Molly Ryan, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. – With no personal income tax and booming economies, Texas, Florida and Tennessee are once again drawing attention from Louisiana lawmakers who are wondering if eliminating income tax could create the same boom in their state.

During a House Ways and Means Committee meeting in September, lawmakers began studying the state’s taxes as part of a House resolution passed earlier this year. It tasks the committee with making recommendations to the Legislature about Louisiana’s tax structure, including the state income tax.

Rep. Richard Nelson, a Mandeville Republican and the son of an IRS agent, argued that rebuilding the state’s tax structure and eliminating the income tax is necessary to make Louisiana more competitive and attract investment.

He points out that Texas and Florida grown in population six times faster than Louisiana.

“When you look at the state, and you look at the trajectory that we’re going, I think the tax structure in Louisiana is one of the fundamental things that’s holding us back,” Nelson said.

Read more at KTBS

Published: Sep. 26, 2022

By: Oscar Tickle

POINT À LA HACHE – Don Beshel walks out of his office and looks out on his marina. Where once were dozens of boats now sit only a few. The levee has more boats washed up from flooding than line his docks.

The air here used to have salty undertones. Now fresh water from the Mississippi River has mixed with salty water from the Gulf. The air is now stale – along with Beshel’s business.

He blames a breach in the levee downriver back in 2011. Before the breach, oysters and saltwater fish like mullet thrived around his marina. Now the water brims with different kinds of fish. The old marsh is gone, replaced by a nearly unrecognizable landscape lined with rows of black-willow trees. Boats cannot find their way out of the marsh due to silt dumped by fresh water from the breach.

Beshel’s world is changing around him. For the people upriver in the Barataria region of the river delta, things are about to change, too, as scientists and others implement a plan to restore something of the untamed river of the past – and blunt coastal erosion often blamed for increasing the impact of hurricane storm surges on New Orleans and other cities.

Read more at Louisiana Illuminator

Published: Aug. 1, 2022

By: Alex Tirado

BATON ROUGE, La. (LSU Manship School New Service) – Living almost seven decades without any information about her birth, Rebecca Browning never thought she would learn more about where she came from.

Now, thanks to a bill passed during the 2022 legislative session, Browning is able to access a key to her past.

House Bill 450, now Act No. 470, took effect Monday, and it allows adopted persons 24 years of age or older to obtain a copy of their original birth certificate.

Browning was adopted at six months old from Catholic Charities in New Orleans. She grew up in Baton Rouge and remembers a fairytale kind of life spent playing in the front yard with her sister, dancing with her parents in the living room and roasting marshmallows in the fireplace.

As much as Browning adored her adoptive parents and her life, she is excited to know more about portions of her life left unanswered.

Read more at KALB

Published: June 7, 2022

By: Piper Hutchinson

The Louisiana Legislature signed off on a bill Monday that would allow students to substitute computer coding for a foreign language when being considered for TOPS eligibility.

Senate Bill 191, sponsored by Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, would amend the requirements for eligibility for the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students to allow them to count two credits of computer coding in high school instead of two credits of a foreign language.

The House voted 54-41 to approve the bill after a conference committee removed an amendment by Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Houma, which had changed the bill from allowing coding as a substitute for a foreign language to allowing those classes to be counted under the science requirement.

The conference report was also sustained by the Senate Monday on a 34-0 vote.

Read more at Longview News-Journal

Published: June 6, 2022

By: Piper Hutchinson and Alex Tirado, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – As the Legislature adjourned Monday, Gov. John Bel Edwards expressed his support for the investments in education and infrastructure, including a teacher pay raise of $1,500 and $300 million toward a new Mississippi River bridge.

But he also announced that he would acquiesce in one area that he has disagreed with Republican lawmakers saying he would allow a bill that prohibits transgender athletes from competing according to their gender identity to become law without his signature.

Edwards vetoed a similar measure last year, but he said that he decided not to veto the latest ban, Senate Bill 44, sponsored by Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, because he knew that the Legislature could override the veto this time.

“I hope we can all get to a point soon where we realize that these young people are doing the very best that they can to survive,” Edwards said.

As the session’s 6 p.m. deadline approached, legislators spent the day debating, rewriting, and passing some of the remaining bills.

Read more at St. Mary Now

Published: June 6, 2022

By: Allison Allsop, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–A federal district judge ruled Monday that the new congressional maps drawn during a special legislative redistricting session earlier this year need to be redone to be fair to the state’s minority residents.

Gov. John Bel Edwards quickly said that he would call the Republican-led Legislature back into a new special session to reconsider the maps. Republican leaders said they would appeal the ruling.

Edwards vetoed the maps in March, but the legislators overrode his veto.

The maps created only one minority district for the six Louisiana congressional seats despite 33% of the state’s population being Black.

Read more at Bossier Press

Published: June 5, 2022

By: Piper Hutchinson, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–The House gave final passage Thursday to bills that would enhance criminal penalties for abortion providers and make it a crime for out-of-state companies to supply abortion pills to Louisiana residents by mail.

Senate Bill 342, sponsored by Sen. Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe, would increase criminal penalties for abortion providers under Louisiana’s trigger laws.

The bill passed 72-25, with Democratic Reps. Robby Carter of Amite, Chad Brown of Plaquemine, Mack Cormier of Belle Chasse, Travis Johnson of Vidalia, Jeremy LaCombe of Livonia and Francis Thompson of Delhi supporting the bill.

Rep. Mary DuBuisson of Slidell was the only Republican to vote against the bill.

The House also voted 72-24 vote to give final passage to Senate Bill 388, which would criminalize providing abortion-inducing medication by mail.

Louisiana is one of thirteen states with trigger laws that go into effect if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Under a law signed by former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat, most abortions would become illegal almost immediately upon the overturning of Roe.

Existing statute allows for prison terms of one to five years and fines of $5,000 to $50,000 for abortion providers. Jackson’s bill increases the penalties to one to 10 years of prison time and fines of $10,000 to $100,000.

Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, said at a press conference Thursday that he supports exceptions for rape and incest. He has not yet said whether he would veto Jackson’s bill. He has previously supported bills that do not include the exceptions.

Read more at The Daily Iberian

Published: June 3, 2022

By: Alex Tirado | LSU Manship School News Service

The state Senate gave final passage Friday to a bill that would allow adopted people 24 years of age or older to obtain their original birth certificates.

Rep. Charles Owen, R-Fort Polk, who was himself adopted, authored House Bill 450 to grant adoptees the same right to know where they came from as any other resident of Louisiana.

Under present law enacted in 1977, an adopted person’s original birth certificate is sealed after a final decree of adoption and can only be opened by a court order.

The bill, which the Senate approved 29-5, would create a simpler process, allowing an adopted person to request a copy of his or her original birth certificate from the state registrar without the costly burden of going to court.

Read more at The Advocate

Published: June 2, 2022

By: Piper Hutchinson, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — The Senate gave final passage to a bill Wednesday that would protect state employees who legally use medical marijuana.

House Bill 988, sponsored by Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, protects state employees from negative consequences if they are diagnosed with conditions for which a doctor recommends medical marijuana used in accordance with state law.

The bill cleared the Senate on a 26-8 vote. It was opposed by Republican Sens. Mike Fesi of Houma, Beth Mizell of Franklinton, Cameron Henry of Metairie, Sharon Hewitt of Slidell, Jay Morris of Monroe, Barrow Peacock of Bossier City, Rogers Pope of Denham Springs and Bodi White of Central.

The law would protect employees from being fired and would protect prospective employees from being discriminated against for use of medical marijuana.

Read more at Town Talk

Published: June 2, 2022

By: Piper Hutchinson, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–The House voted 59-39 Tuesday to pass a bill that would prohibit former juvenile offenders from possessing firearms until they are 24 years old.

Senate Bill 379, sponsored by Sen. Barrow Peacock, R-Bossier City, would prohibit former juvenile offenders who have been adjudicated for a crime of violence from possessing firearms until then.

The House amended the bill, which was carried on the floor by Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, to remove a provision that would have allowed the former offenders to possess guns to hunt.

Rep. Joe Marino, I-Gretna, argued that the bill is unconstitutional, as juveniles are not convicted by a jury, but rather adjudicated solely by a judge.

Read more at BIZ Magazine