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:
HB 71 (House only) – would have required plebiscites to alter or remove objects related to a military conflict; a conservative/reform vote is for (10 percent).
HB 113 –
maintains higher education governing boards’ ability to set fees; a
conservative/reform vote is for (10 percent).
HB 681 --
decreases crime deterrence by letting some immediately receive some government
benefits after completing a sentence; a conservative/reform vote is against (5 percent).
SB 25 –
discourages school choice options by abolishing the education tax credit; a
conservative/reform vote is against (10 percent).
SB 67 --
encourages audit compliance of local governments; a conservative/reform vote is
for (10 percent).
SB 79 –
increases permanently and needlessly corporate income taxes; a
conservative/reform vote is against (10 percent).
SB 83 –
foists an unneeded hotel occupancy tax hike on much of East Baton Rouge Parish;
a conservative/reform vote is against (5 percent).
SB 106 –
distracts higher education provision with social service duties; a
conservative/reform vote is against (5 percent).
SB 139 –
weakens too much crime deterrence with changes to sentence lengths served
including parole and probation; a conservative/reform vote is against (5 percent).
SB 162
(Senate only) – would have prevented local governments from mandating
inclusionary housing standards; a conservative/reform vote is for (10 percent).
SB 243 –
reins in the alternative fuel conversion tax credit; a conservative/reform vote
is for (10 percent).
SB 254 –
keeps too inflated the Motion Picture Investor Tax Credit; a conservative/reform
vote is against (10 percent).
The scores produced made for an unusual year.
Whether these came from the relentless pressure to raise taxes, pressure by Gov.
John Bel Edwards
(and especially using the vessel of Sen. Pres. John Alario) to
score policy victories, or something else, the averages for the chambers came
in considerably lower than last year’s and below historical norms, indicating a
swing away from conservativism/reformism. You know it’s an odd session when
House GOP leader Lance
Harris at 35 scored lower than the leader of House Democrats Gene Reynolds’
40, and that past usual high scorers such as Reps. Bob Hensgens
and Barry Ivey
and Sens. Jack
Donahue and Conrad
Appel couldn’t break 50.
All in all, since the scorecard’s first
computation in 2004, this was the second lowest combined chamber score, just
about 44. And while several lower combined Democrat scores had turned up in
this period, the 51.5 GOP combined average was the lowest ever.
Some things remained the same. Once again, in the
Senate Barrow
Peacock scored highest and Karen Peterson
(tied) for the lowest, although his score sank from last year and hers
increased. In the House, Republicans Steve Pylant and
Scott Simon slipped
a bit from from last year, but this year their scores gave them the most
conservative/reform record along with no-party Dee Richard. At
a perfect liberal/populist 0 was Edwards ally Speaker Pro-Tem Walt Leger.
Reviewing the House, unlike the clean demarcation
between Republicans and Democrats in the past few years, where few Republicans
scored lower than the highest Democrat, partisans were all over the map this
year. Among Republicans, barely half the caucus scored above 50 joined by
Richard and a pair of Democrats, while the lowest scoring Republican went
higher than only 13 Democrats.
Pylant
|
80
|
Republican
|
Richard
|
80
|
Independent
|
Simon
|
80
|
Republican
|
Henry
|
75
|
Republican
|
Hodges
|
75
|
Republican
|
Miguez
|
75
|
Republican
|
Seabaugh
|
75
|
Republican
|
Horton
|
70
|
Republican
|
Morris, Jay
|
70
|
Republican
|
Pugh
|
70
|
Republican
|
Talbot
|
70
|
Republican
|
Crews
|
65
|
Republican
|
Cromer
|
65
|
Republican
|
DeVillier
|
65
|
Republican
|
Edmonds
|
65
|
Republican
|
Hollis
|
65
|
Republican
|
Landry, N
|
65
|
Republican
|
LeBas
|
65
|
Democrat
|
Mack
|
65
|
Republican
|
Schroder
|
65
|
Republican
|
Carmody
|
61
|
Republican
|
Connick
|
61
|
Republican
|
Amedee
|
60
|
Republican
|
Coussan
|
60
|
Republican
|
Falconer
|
60
|
Republican
|
Hilferty
|
60
|
Republican
|
Morris, Jim
|
60
|
Republican
|
Pearson
|
60
|
Republican
|
Stefanski
|
60
|
Republican
|
Stokes
|
60
|
Republican
|
Armes
|
55
|
Democrat
|
Bacala
|
55
|
Republican
|
Havard
|
55
|
Republican
|
Huval
|
55
|
Republican
|
Miller, G
|
55
|
Republican
|
Pope
|
55
|
Republican
|
Barras
|
50
|
Republican
|
Berthelot
|
50
|
Republican
|
Billiot
|
50
|
Democrat
|
Broadwater
|
50
|
Republican
|
Emerson
|
50
|
Republican
|
Foil
|
50
|
Republican
|
Garafalo
|
50
|
Republican
|
Gisclair
|
50
|
Democrat
|
Hazel
|
50
|
Republican
|
Hoffman
|
50
|
Republican
|
Howard
|
50
|
Republican
|
McFarland
|
50
|
Republican
|
Miller, D
|
50
|
Democrat
|
Schexnayder
|
50
|
Republican
|
Shadoin
|
50
|
Republican
|
Thomas
|
50
|
Republican
|
Anders
|
45
|
Democrat
|
Brown, T
|
45
|
Independent
|
Hensgens
|
45
|
Republican
|
Hill
|
45
|
Democrat
|
Ivey
|
45
|
Republican
|
Bagley
|
40
|
Republican
|
Bishop, S
|
40
|
Republican
|
Brown, C
|
40
|
Democrat
|
Carter, S
|
40
|
Republican
|
Chaney
|
40
|
Republican
|
Davis
|
40
|
Republican
|
Jones
|
40
|
Democrat
|
Marino
|
40
|
Independent
|
Reynolds
|
40
|
Democrat
|
Thibaut
|
40
|
Democrat
|
White, M
|
40
|
Democrat
|
Abramson
|
35
|
Democrat
|
Franklin
|
35
|
Democrat
|
Harris, L
|
35
|
Republican
|
Johnson
|
35
|
Democrat
|
Leopold
|
35
|
Republican
|
Magee
|
35
|
Republican
|
Price
|
35
|
Democrat
|
Stagni
|
35
|
Republican
|
Abraham
|
33
|
Republican
|
Norton
|
33
|
Democrat
|
Carter, R
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Cox
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Danahay
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Dwight
|
30
|
Republican
|
Hall
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Jackson
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Jefferson
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Jenkins
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Landry, T
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Lyons
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Pierre
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Zeringue
|
30
|
Republican
|
Carter, G
|
25
|
Democrat
|
Guinn
|
25
|
Republican
|
Bagneris
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Carpenter
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Gaines
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Hunter
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Jordan
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Marcelle
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Moreno
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Smith
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Bouie
|
10
|
Democrat
|
Glover
|
10
|
Democrat
|
Harris, J
|
10
|
Democrat
|
James
|
10
|
Democrat
|
Leger
|
0
|
Democrat
|
Peacock
|
65
|
Republican
|
Fannin
|
60
|
Republican
|
Milkovich
|
55
|
Democrat
|
Riser
|
55
|
Republican
|
Walsworth
|
55
|
Republican
|
Erdey
|
50
|
Republican
|
Johns
|
50
|
Republican
|
Lambert
|
50
|
Republican
|
Long
|
50
|
Republican
|
Perry
|
50
|
Republican
|
White, B
|
50
|
Republican
|
Gatti
|
45
|
Republican
|
LaFleur
|
45
|
Democrat
|
Morrish
|
45
|
Republican
|
Smith, G
|
45
|
Democrat
|
Tarver
|
45
|
Democrat
|
Appel
|
44
|
Republican
|
Cortez
|
42
|
Republican
|
Martiny
|
42
|
Republican
|
Alario
|
40
|
Republican
|
Allain
|
40
|
Republican
|
Hewitt
|
40
|
Republican
|
Mizell
|
40
|
Republican
|
Colomb
|
38
|
Democrat
|
Chabert
|
35
|
Republican
|
Claitor
|
35
|
Republican
|
Luneau
|
35
|
Democrat
|
Bishop, W
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Carter, T
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Donahue
|
30
|
Republican
|
Mills
|
30
|
Republican
|
Thompson
|
30
|
Democrat
|
Ward
|
30
|
Republican
|
Boudreaux
|
26
|
Democrat
|
Barrow
|
25
|
Democrat
|
Morrell
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Peterson
|
20
|
Democrat
|
Smith, J
|
20
|
Republican
|
Price
|
Democrat
|
(note: Price served most of his term in the House
prior to winning a special election to a vacant Senate seat in May, but he
chose not to take that seat until after all sessions concluded.)
Finally, leading the charge towards
liberalism/populism was Edwards, who scored 33. This dropped precipitously from
last year and was more in line with his historical norm as a legislator. Perhaps
this demonstrates greater facility in directing legislation particularly in the
Senate, displaying better ability to line up preferred bills rather than having
them stymied and having to accept the products of conservative/reform forces.
Thus concludes, absent an unanticipated, relevant
special session, this year’s edition of the Louisiana Legislature Log.
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