DID YOU KNOW?
HB
1079 by Rep. Tim
Burns would require more detailed reporting of campaign expenditures. He
had an amendment offered by the Committee on Senate
and Governmental Affairs that simplified the language to say a brief
description of the expense was required. Example entries were prepared by the
Board of Ethics that could be distributed to candidates and posted in the
website. The amendment was offered and adopted.
Witnesses
urged that the legislature’s own rules supplement the bill with more detail,
who described it as a “tiny step forward.” The bill was reported favorably
without objection.
DID
YOU KNOW?
HB
695 by Burns would allow the Board of Ethics to make informal inquiries
into minor questions about a disclosure form, which its staff does not have the
authority to be able to do currently, meaning that formal inquiries have to be
launched over information that otherwise could be gathered much more easily.
The panel discussed who the appropriate individuals connected to a campaign
should be in order to receive such inquiries and answer them, and concluded because
of the variety it should not be put into law. They agreed that either the filer
or a person designated by him would be the relevant contact. Clarified with an
amendment, they reported the bill favorably without objection.
DID YOU KNOW?
HB
858 by Rep. Regina
Barrow would require when more than 100 employees get laid off by a state
agencies that legislators be notified before action can be taken. Sen. Mike Walsworth offered an amendment
that would not make the notification required prior to the action, which he
said would take care of situations where there was some threat to public safety
by not removing the provision. Barrow was against it, so Walsworth withdrew it.
He then asked to defer it involuntarily, and it was without objection.
DID
YOU KNOW?
HB
956 by Rep. Julie
Stokes would attempt to codify pay equity for women in to Louisiana law. Sen.
Greg Tarver asked a witness from the
Louisiana Association of Business and Industry why he supported this bill when others
the group had rejected support, who responded that those brought in comparable
worth consideration, the difference between “equal” and “similar.” Sen. Bob Kostelka asked why it was needed,
if federal law covered it; he repeated and elaborated on the difference.
An
opponent, who had supported those other bills, argued the bill didn’t go far
enough and would confuse and distract from what she alleged were the real
problems, claiming discrimination had to be present because the average wage of
women compared to men on the basis of the same job names and factoring out
nothing else was two-thirds of men’s, and said that the protections from abuse
that Stokes argued were necessary were an impediment to that.
Chairman
Jody Amedee asked whether the bill
had enforcement teeth. He was told that by reading in the federal statute that
improved that aspect. Sen. Edwin Murray
also said this was the wrong approach, compared to the other bills. Tarver then
moved to defer, but Walsworth moved by substitute to move favorably. That
motion lost 3-4, and so it was deferred involuntarily.
QUOTES
OF THE DAY
I’m
not a lawyer, I’m an undertaker. I bury my mistakes.
Tarver, during debate on one of
several Burns’ campaign finance bills.
There
are so many of you.
Tarver, asking Stokes about who she
was, never having met her or recognized her, noting there are a lot more representatives
than senators.
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