LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau

Devon Sanders

Four bills to stop hazing were signed into law by Gov. John Bel Edwards Thursday.

Edwards also signed legislation that would restore voting rights to felons on parole five years after their release from prison.

The anti-hazing bills make hazing a felony, strengthen penalties for those who are involved or aware of hazing and require universities to create hazing prevention training.

Rae Ann Gruver, mother of Maxwell Gruver, an LSU freshman who died after he was forced to drink six times the legal alcohol limit at a fraternity house, said that the laws send a message to the entire country.

“Hazing is a problem across the country and things need to change,” Gruver said. “The culture needs to change on hazing. Four bills going through today related to hazing is huge. It says a lot about where the problem is. So I think people need to start standing up and taking action and make the change happen.”

Read the story in The Louisiana Weekly.

Paul Braun

The Senate voted 30-5 to increase the state’s earned income tax credit by 42.8 percent to offset some the impact that a renewal of part of the state’s sales tax would have on the working poor.

The state’s earned income tax credit is 3.5 percent of the amount of a similar federal credit. Morrell’s bill would increase it to 5 percent.

However, his bill also would need to pass the House, which killed two similar bills in committee on Friday.

Increasing the tax credit would cost the state an estimated $21 million in revenue, making it a tough sell amid the state’s current budget crisis.

Read the story in KALB.

Kaylee Poche and Ryan Noonan

No one in the Louisiana Legislature has to snoop in backroom meetings to know what Rep. Barry Ivey, R-Central, is thinking.

He will tell you right on the House floor, and this week he’s not too happy that the Legislature seems likely to apply another band-aid to the state’s budget woes instead of coming up with a more comprehensive solution.

“I realize why Louisiana is shaped like a boot, because we’re a kick-the-can state every time,” Ivey said last week.

Infamous around the Capitol for his blunt and passionate speeches and his conservative principles, Ivey has earned the nickname “Mr. Transparency” among his colleagues. He also is willing to call out members of his own party, including former Gov. Bobby Jindal, who, he says, helped to create the budget mess by putting his presidential ambitions ahead of the needs of the state.

Read the story in The Daily Advertiser.

Tryfon Boukouvidis

With the clock ticking down, a Senate committee on Wednesday amended a House Republican bill to sharply increase the revenue that it would raise to $642 million from $365 million to address a looming budget shortfall.

The Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee agreed to keep a proposed extension of a third of a penny of sales tax rather than increasing it to a half cent, as many analysts had expected. But the panel was still able to raise so much more revenue by eliminating tax exemptions for various industries.

It also voted to remove a House provision that would have ended the extra third of a cent of sales tax in 2023.

The bill now moves to the Senate floor. Senate passage would set up a showdown with the more conservative House, and a conference committee with members of both chambers would have resolve the differences before the special legislative session expires on Monday.

Read the story in BIZ.

Tryfon Boukouvidis

After several contentious days, the House on Monday passed a Republican bill 76-28 to partially address the impending fiscal cliff when temporary revenue measures expire this summer.

The bill broke a logjam in the House, which could not agree on any revenue measures in March and marked a significant step toward solving some of the state’s budget problems.

The bill now goes to the Senate, which could adjust it to raise more revenue to ease possible cuts in health care and higher education.

The House bill, authored by Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, the leader of the Legislature’s Republican delegation, would temporarily extend one-third of a penny of state sales tax. That would raise $369 million in revenue next year, and the third of a penny, which would make the state sales tax. 4.33 percent, would remain in effect through 2023.

Read the story in The Franklin Sun.

Tryfon Boukouvidis and Paul Braun

The House failed to pass a Republican bill on Friday that would have raised a third less money than what Gov. John Bel Edwards is seeking to deal with a projected budget shortfall.

The bill, written by Rep. Lance Harris of Alexandria, who heads the Legislature’s Republican delegation, needed 70 votes to pass, but received only 64, with 38 against it.

The House plans to return on Monday afternoon to try again to pass a bill that would start consideration of possible tax measures in the special session that runs through June 4. The Senate, which is thought to favor a bill that would raise more revenue, cannot act until the House passes a bill.

The failure of the proposal on Friday was reminiscent of the House’s inability to pass any kind of tax bill in a special session that collapsed earlier this year. But Friday’s bill came closer to passage than any of the earlier bills, and House leaders will see if it is possible to make changes that would attract more votes.

Read the story in KALB.

Drew White

After a heated debate over priorities given the state budget shortfall, a House committee on Friday decided to keep the cap on credits for movies, TV shows and commercials shot in the state at $180 million a year rather than cutting it to $90 million.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted 8-4 to maintain the current subsidy even though some legislators suggested that the money should be used instead to stave off possible cuts in vital public services.

The state-subsidized credits incentivize production companies to film in Louisiana, once deemed “Hollywood South.” But the Legislature also is trying to solve an estimated $648 million “fiscal cliff,” and it is not clear if it will approve enough revenue measures to avoid the cuts.

“I think health care and education should be prioritized over Popeye’s commercials,” argued the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice.

Read the story in The Natchitoches Times.

Kaylee Poche and Tryfon Boukouvidis

The House Ways and Means Committee voted 11-6 Thursday to advance a Republican bill that would raise $369 million in additional revenue next year ­— $279 million less than state officials say they would need to cover a projected budget shortfall.

The bill, written by Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, would extend one-third of the penny of sales tax that is set to expire this summer and include budget cuts to reduce the size of state government.

Harris, the chairman of the Louisiana Republican Legislative Delegation, argued that the budget gap is likely to be about $495 million and that state agencies would face only a 1.3 percent cut in funding on average.

But the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference projects that the shortfall will be $648 million, and Jay Dardenne, a top official in Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration, said Harris’ bill would require much more “dramatic reductions” in higher education and state health services than Harris acknowledged.

Read the story in The Minden Press-Herald.

Drew White

Joby Richard

The Republican push for more state spending transparency is back.

The Senate Finance Committee advanced a bill Wednesday to expand a state website to include spending by the judiciary, the Legislature and public universities along with the current data from agencies in the executive branch.

And in the House, Speaker Taylor Barras refiled his bill to create a new website called the Louisiana Checkbook modeled on a more highly ranked site in Ohio.

Sen. Rick Ward, R-Port Allen, proposed the bill that the Senate committee sent to the floor without objection.

Read the story in The Daily Comet.