Floor action, Jun. 22: HB 827, SB 5

DID YOU KNOW?
HB 827 by Rep. Scott Simon would allow the disabled to register more easily in nursing homes (currently it must be done at a homestead if it is claimed) and to be assisted in voting. For the second time during this day’s session Sen. David Heitmeier proposed an amendment to require people running for office to have to file for income taxes. Sen. Mike Walsworth asked how it would be administered, pointing out the burdens it would place on clerks of court and the Secretary of State’s office. Heitmeier said it was not his concern, but that anybody having the privilege of serving in office should file their taxes.

Presenting the bill, Sen. Jack Donahue said its originator, the Secretary of State, preferred a clean bill and that Heitmeier could introduce his own legislation for this the next year. Heitmeier claimed the office had no objection to his amendment. It then carried 27-7. Despite that, Donahue pressed on and got a 37-0 vote to pass the bill.

DID YOU KNOW?
SB 5 by Sen. Neil Riser would enable amending of the constitution to allow the Legislature to meet two weeks earlier and adjourn as late as two weeks earlier, for both kinds of sessions, taking effect next term. Rep. Avon Honey asked presenter Rep. Noble Ellington asked why make the changes, who said he didn’t know, and didn’t know of any cost savings.

Rep. Damon Baldone asked about how it would conflict with Carnival season. Ellington said Riser had worked to make a compromise date, and this was it. After adoption of a technical amendment, Rep. Page Cortez asked how this would affect fiscal procedures, such as the Revenue Estimating Conference dates. Ellington said he thought the dates also took this into consideration.

Rep. Mert Smiley pointed out in questioning that Louisiana’s start and end dates were about the latest of all the states. Ellington repeating pretty much everything he and everybody else had said. After a lockout request yielded a quorum, the bill failed 56-38 and Ellington asked for reconsideration.

QUOTES OF THE DAY
It’ll get a lot of daddies home earlier.
Ellington’s summation of SB 5.

And I am here.
Speaker Jim Tucker, after naming off almost 20 representatives names as being present during the SB 5 quorum call.

I don’t know.
Rep. Walker Hines, when offering an amendment to SB 136, which its presenter Rep. Jeff Arnold said was designed to kill the bill if accepted, asked whether he would vote for the amended bill, which drew catcalls from the House.