Legislative regular session scores, 2015

And so the session is complete, save an unprecedented and miraculous veto override session being called. Thus, and appropriately on Independence Day, it’s time to compute the voting scorecard for the 2015 session. Twelve bills were selected and weighed for computation, all but two having been voted upon in both chambers. These were chosen mostly from the watch list compiled throughout the session, along with others of some importance. For a bill’s vote(s) to be selected, in one chamber there had to be more than one legislator not voting for the winning or losing side.

Being that passage of bills depends upon the seated membership of a body, not voting is counted as a negative vote. However, if a legislator had a leave of absence granted for that day, his absent votes weren’t counted for bills voted on that day and the score adjusted to take that into account.

Here are the bills with votes for final passage in every case on which the scorecard was computed, with the conservative/reform position and the weighing indicated:

SB 48 – would have locked in money that the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students would pay for tuition at this fiscal year’s level and then could be increased only by legislative approval; a conservative/reform vote is for (15 percent).

SB 218 – uses taxpayer dollars to entice athletic and entertainment events to happen in the state; a conservative/reform vote is against (5 percent).

SB 219 – (Senate only) would have instituted the concept of comparable worth into private sector salary decisions; a conservative/reform vote is against (10 percent).

HB 70 – (House only) would have doubled the earned income tax credit; a conservative/reform vote is against (10 percent).

HB 119 – increases taxation on cigarette consumption and dedicates the proceeds to pay for public expenses related to that behavior; a conservative/reform vote is for (5 percent).

HB 131 – prevents recalled officials from running in the election called as a consequence of their recall; a conservative/reform vote is for (5 percent).

HB 624 – reduces certain tax exceptions for corporations for three years; a conservative/reform vote is against (10 percent).

HB 629 – reduces income and franchise tax credits for corporations for three years; a conservative/reform vote is against (10 percent).

HB 749 – requires periodic review of tax credits for their effectiveness; a conservative/reform vote is for (5 percent).

HB 779 – tightens eligibility for the solar energy installation tax credit; a conservative/reform vote is for (10 percent).

HB 829 – tightens eligibility requirements for the motion picture investor tax credit and caps it for three years; a conservative/reform vote is for (15 percent).

HCR 75 – allows for Medicaid expansion by assessing a fee to many hospitals which may then pass that along to consumers; a conservative/reform vote is against (10 percent).

Despite the tax-raising frenzy that occurred, with the two biggest tax-raising votes included in the index, the aggregate score of 56.60 was hardly were different from last year, a little over two points away from the conservative/reform direction but above the 12-year lifetime average and the average for the second Gov. Bobby Jindal term. The partisan gap overall actually was almost 10 points below historical norms, at about 18 points, primarily because Democrats at 46.03 scored around seven points above their historical norms – but predictably, as in both Jindal terms Democrats voted significantly less liberal/populist the two years preceding an election than the first two years following elections. The chamber gap was, as last year, slightly more conservative/reform on the House side at 1.5 points, about half the lifetime gap.

In the House, Rep. Lenar Whitney did not let her failed Congressional campaign cramp her style; she repeated as most conservative/reform House member. Unsurprisingly, the top 38 scorers were Republicans (or five-eighths of the entire delegation), and eight of the nine lowest scorers were Democrats (Rep. Franklin Foil the GOP interloper), being many of the same names as in previous years with Rep. Marcus Hunter taking the honors as lowest. But one typical low scorer was absent and in stunning fashion: last year’s lowest scorer Rep. Pat Smith went from tied for 104^th to tied for 23^rd, amazingly the highest scoring Democrat and completely against historical type. Almost as amazing was Rep. A.B. Franklin, another historically low scorer, ended up on the conservative/reform side and was third-highest Democrat.

Whitney	95	Republican
Stokes	89	Republican
Johnson, M	85	Republican
Landry, N	85	Republican
Mack	80	Republican
Morris, Jim	80	Republican
Burns, H	75	Republican
Burns, T	75	Republican
Connick	75	Republican
Garafalo	75	Republican
Geymann	75	Republican
Hensgens	75	Republican
Hodges	75	Republican
Hollis	75	Republican
Burford	70	Republican
Cromer	70	Republican
Kleckley	70	Republican
Lambert	70	Republican
Lorusso	70	Republican
Pugh	70	Republican
Seabaugh	70	Republican
Simon	70	Republican
Talbot	70	Republican
Adams	65	Republican
Barras	65	Republican
Berthelot	65	Republican
Bishop, S	65	Republican
Carter	65	Republican
Chaney	65	Republican
Havard	65	Republican
Hoffman	65	Republican
Howard	65	Republican
Ivey	65	Republican
Leopold	65	Republican
Miguez	65	Republican
Pope	65	Republican
Schexnayder	65	Republican
Shadoin	65	Republican
Smith	65	Democrat
Williams, P.	63	Democrat
Broadwater	60	Republican
Carmody	60	Republican
Fannin	60	Republican
Franklin	60	Democrat
Harris	60	Republican
Huval	60	Republican
Miller	60	Republican
Pearson	60	Republican
Ponti	60	Republican
Pylant	60	Republican
Thibaut	60	Democrat
Wilmott	60	Republican
Guillory, M	58	Democrat
Bishop, W	55	Democrat
Bouie	55	Democrat
Cox	55	Democrat
Hall	55	Democrat
Harrison	55	Republican
Honore	55	Democrat
James	55	Democrat
Jefferson	55	Democrat
Landry, T	55	Democrat
Ourso	55	Republican
Price	55	Democrat
Ritchie	55	Democrat
St. Germain	55	Democrat
Thierry	55	Democrat
Armes	50	Democrat
Brown, Terry	50	Independent
Burrell	50	Democrat
Guinn	50	Republican
Hazel	50	Republican
Jackson, K	50	Democrat
Morris, Jay	50	Republican
Pierre	50	Democrat
Schroder	50	Republican
Woodruff	50	Democrat
Badon	45	Democrat
Danahay	45	Democrat
Hill	45	Democrat
Jones	45	Democrat
Montoucet	45	Democrat
Anders	40	Democrat
Barrow	40	Democrat
Billiot	40	Democrat
Dove	40	Republican
Edwards	40	Democrat
Gaines	40	Democrat
Gisclair	40	Democrat
Henry	40	Republican
Lopinto	40	Republican
Moreno	40	Democrat
Ortego	40	Democrat
Richard	40	Independent
Robideaux	40	Republican
Williams, A.	40	Democrat
Abramson	35	Democrat
Arnold	35	Democrat
Foil	35	Republican
Johnson, R	35	Democrat
LeBas	35	Democrat
Leger	35	Democrat
Norton	35	Democrat
Reynolds	35	Democrat
Hunter	25	Democrat

In the Senate, 16 of the top 17 scorers were Republicans (three-fifths of their delegation) with just Sen. Gary Smith slotting in among them for Democrats. At the top, the only “perfect” conservative/reformist legislator this year was Sen. Dale Erdey, whose record has been trending more in this direction since the index began tracking in 2004. Sen. Norby Chabert was the other end for the GOP, with seven Democrats scoring lower than him. The consistently low-scoring Sen. Edwin Murray tied with consistently almost-as-low-scoring state Sen. Ben Nevers for the most liberal/populist senator.

Erdey	100	Republican
Donahue	80	Republican
White	80	Republican
Appel	75	Republican
Allain	70	Republican
Long	70	Republican
Peacock	70	Republican
Smith, G	70	Democrat
Alario	65	Republican
Martiny	65	Republican
Morrish	65	Republican
Walsworth	65	Republican
Cortez	60	Republican
Kostelka	60	Republican
Perry	60	Republican
Riser	60	Republican
Ward	60	Republican
Thompson	58	Democrat
Adley	55	Republican
Brown, Troy	55	Democrat
Claitor	55	Republican
Crowe	55	Republican
Johns	55	Republican
Smith, J	55	Republican
Tarver	55	Democrat
Buffington	53	Republican
Guillory, E	50	Republican
Heitmeier	50	Democrat
Amedee	45	Republican
Mills	45	Republican
LaFleur	44	Democrat
Chabert	40	Republican
Morrell	40	Democrat
Broome	35	Democrat
Dorsey-Colomb	35	Democrat
Gallot	30	Democrat
Peterson	30	Democrat
Murray	25	Democrat
Nevers	25	Democrat

Finally, on the basis of his signing or vetoing nine of these bills (two did not make it out of their respective chambers and one was a resolution) Jindal by far scored the lowest of his eight years in office, at 50, some 30 points below his average.