Regular legislative session through May 8, 2021

Committee action transformed HB 132, HB 379, and HB 652 into benign bills, and these have been removed from the list of bad bills. Also, bad bill HB 480 was reported by substitute, but the text of that as yet to be filed.

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 20 passed the House; HB 118 with major amendment passed the House; HB 167 passed Senate committee; HB 199 with minor amendment passed Senate committee; HB 211 passed the House; HB 256 passed the House; HB 280 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 423 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 438 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 578 passed House committee; HB 579 was deferred involuntarily; HB 596 with minor amendment passed the House; HB 599 became substituted for with HB 704; HB 650 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 653 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 704 passed House committee; SB 4 passed the Senate; SB 124 passed the Senate; SB 156 with minor amendment passed the Senate;  SB 198 with minor amendment passed the Senate; SB 224 with minor amendment passed Senate committee.

THIS WEEK FOR THE BAD: HB 7 passed House committee; HB 84 passed the House; HB 245 passed House committee; HB 248 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 324 failed to pass the House; HB 378 passed the House; HB 391 passed the House; HB 402 passed House committee; HB 468 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 497 became substituted for by HB 702; HB 635 passed House committee; HB 702 passed House committee; SB 24 passed House committee.

Regular legislative session through May 1, 2021

From here on out, the only new bills are old bills, substitutes. This provokes another bad bill, HB 699 as a substitute for HB 524 (see below).

Also, HB 292 and HB 293 have been dropped from the list of good bills and instead join the list of bad bills. They are intended to create a flat rate for corporate income taxation and eliminate the federal tax deduction for corporations. However, in current form they produce a substantial net tax increase (see below).

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 20 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 118 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 154 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 167 with minor amendment passed the House; HB 211 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 256 passed House committee; HB 273 passed House committee; HB 349 with minor amendment passed House committee and with minor amendment passed the House; HB 393 passed House committee; HB 454 was deferred involuntarily; HB 581 with minor amendment passed the House; HB 596 with minor amendment passed House committee; SB 4 passed Senate committee; SB 91 with minor amendment passed the Senate; SB 115 passed Senate committee; SB 118 with major amendment passed the Senate; SB 124 passed Senate committee; SB 156 passed Senate committee; SB 194 passed the Senate; SB 198 passed Senate committee; SB 219 with major amendment passed the Senate; SB 221 with minor amendment passed the Senate.

Regular legislative session through Apr. 24, 2021

Some more bills got in before filing for the session closes.

THE BAD: HB 693 by Rep. Paula Davis extends an unneeded tax and to restrictively assigns its avails; HB 696 by Rep. Mandie Landry revives the death tax.

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 138 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 167 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 171 with major amendment passed House committee; HB 199 passed House committee and with minor amendment passed the House; HB 207 passed House committee; HB 274 passed House committee; HB 275 passed House committee; HB 278 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 369 passed House committee; HB 376 with major amendment passed House committee; HB 388 with major amendment passed House committee; HB 475 with minor amendment passed the House; HB 581 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 612 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 629 with major amendment passed House committee; SB 1 with minor amendment passed Senate committee; SB 8 with major amendment passed the Senate; SB 63 with minor amendment passed Senate committee; SB 91 passed Senate committee; SB 118 passed Senate committee; SB 159 passed the Senate;  SB 194 passed Senate committee; SB 219 with minor amendment passed Senate committee; SB 221 with minor amendment passed Senate committee.

Regular legislative session through Apr. 17, 2021

Off to a faster start than usual with the volume of tax change bills out there, some bills still are being put into the hopper.

THE BAD: HB 659 by Rep. Matthew Willard would create a largely-duplicative, unneeded tax break; HB 660 by Rep. Jason Hughes would increase the Earned Income Tax Credit.

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 199 passed House committee; HB 292 with technical amendment passed House committee; HB 293 with technical amendment passed House committee; SB 159 passed Senate committee.

Good, Bad, and Ugly Bills for the 2021 Regular Session

Welcome to the first post of the 2021 Regular Session, as always the good, bad, and ugly bills prefiled. Given that particularly the tax-related bills interact so complexly with each other, bills could appear and disappear weekly from this list depending upon their amendments and combinations moving forward.

THE GOOD: HB 16 by Rep. Danny McCormick would reduce bureaucracy regarding the ability to carry a concealed firearm (similar bill: HB 596; SB 118); HB 20 by Rep. Blake Miguez would make more difficult private interests interfering with elections; HB 30 by Rep. Phillip DeVillier would reduce severance taxes to create a more balanced energy policy; HB 36 by DeVillier would reduce waste in the Motion Picture Production Tax Credit program; HB 40 by Rep. Mark Wright would wean off using money for transportation better suited for infrastructure from personnel costs; HB 61 by Rep. Valarie Hodges would reduce fraudulent Earned Income Tax Credit claims; HB 83 by Rep. Bryan Fontenot doesn’t allow bail decisions in one parish to override those of another; HB 103 by McCormick would reduce discrimination on the basis of coronavirus vaccine reception; HB 118 by Rep. Larry Frieman would strengthen Second Amendment protections; HB 138 by Rep. Les Farnum would strengthen ballot integrity (similar bills: HB 167, HB 581, HB 599, HB 653, SB 63, 64, SB 219, SB 220; SB 221, SB 224); HB 149 by Frieman would clarify emergency declaration powers; HB 154 by Rep. Zee Zeringue would amend the Constitution to allow for greater latitude in investments for some state funds; HB 180 by Rep. Jonathan Goudreau would reduce unemployment compensation waste; HB 203 by Rep. Stuart Bishop would amend the Constitution to change vote requirements that create more efficient use of tax exceptions; HB 204 by Rep. Christopher Turner would allow for greater flexibility in delivery of some Medicaid waiver services; HB 205 by DeVillier would amend the Constitution to eliminate the corporate federal income tax deduction (similar bills: HB 208, HB 209, HB 210, HB 274, HB 275, HB 292, HB 293, HB 454); HB 207 by Zeringue would amend the Constitution to broaden and flatten non-corporate income taxation (similar bills: HB 171, HB 206, HB 233, HB 278, HB 369, HB 376, HB 441, HB 475, HB 486, HB 488, HB 504, HB 546, SB 159), HB 211 by Rep. Mark Wright would strengthen public school choice options; HB 213 by Rep. Tony Bacala would strengthen accountability of Medicaid; HB 256 by Rep. Philip Tarver would end privileging of teacher unions under law; HB 273 by Rep. Beau Beallieu would amend the Constitution to create a more realistic expenditure limit (similar bill: HB 276); HB 279 by DeVillier would phase out the corporate franchise tax (similar bills: HB 520, HB 543, HB 547, HB 629); HB 280 by Rep. Rick Edmonds would expand access to and accountability of the state’s voucher program; HB 297 by Tarver encourages more responsible administration of mayor’s courts; HB 349 by Rep. Kathy Edmonston would prohibit the state from permitting use of potentially discriminatory medical information (similar bills: HB 498, SB 198); HB 352 by Hodges would clarify civics instruction; HB 356 by Bacala would improve Medicaid efficiency; HB 388 by Rep. Lance Harris would increase the efficiency of ballot tabulation; HB 393 by Rep. Joseph Oregon would remove impediments to wine sales; HB 423 by Julie Emerson would provide better data for policy-making concerning abortion; HB 428 by Rep. Brett Geymann would prevent federal disaster funds alone from increasing ordinary state spending; HB 438 by Miguez would prevent abuse of public records requests; HB 487 by Rep. Michael Echols would amend the Constitution to give greater latitude in addressing budgetary shortfalls; HB 496 by Harris would extend financial disclosure requirements to judges; HB 542 by Rep. Beryl Amedee would secure fairness in school sports competition (similar bill: SB 156); HB 556 by DeVillier increases school choice options; HB 564 by Rep. Ray Garofalo would generally promote intellectual rigor in education; HB 575 by Rep. Gabe Firment would protect children’s health (similar bill: SB 104); HB 578 by Amedee would provide more information to women seeking abortions; HB 579 by Amedee would prevent government intrusion on bodily autonomy in health care decisions; HB 597 by Miguez would promote greater fairness in state government contracting; HB 612 by Rep. Richard Nelson would simplify and update sales taxation rates; HB 630 by Rep. Dodie Horton would make more accountable a quasi-independent state agency; HB 650 by Rep. Thomas Pressly would depoliticize and improve operations and regulation of river port pilots and steamship pilots; SB 1 by Sen. Barrow Peacock would siphon temporary sales tax money to roads (similar bill: SB 30); SB 4 by Sen. Ed Price would remove arbitrary limits on financing campaign speech; SB 8 by Peacock would end a needless tax break; SB 91 by Peacock would facilitate estate transfers; SB 115 by Peacock would provide for sensible gun control; SB 124 by Sen. Sharon Hewitt would require national anthem performance before athletic contests in venues constructed with public dollars; SB 137 by Sen. Kirk Talbot would make progress towards lowering long-term care costs while providing better services; SB 177 by Sen. Barry Milligan would amend the Constitution to create a more efficient sales tax collection system (similar bill: HB 199); SB 194 by Sen. Gerald Boudreaux extends the existing moratorium on increasing nursing home beds until 2027; SB 235 by Hewitt would establish closed primaries without runoff for parties with a non-trivial amount of registrations for congressional elections.