Legislative regular session through May 28, 2011

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 238 passed House committee; HB 277 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 332 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 391 with major amendment passed House committee, had amendments rejected by House committee; HB 415 passed the House; HB 416 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 440 was reported by substitute by House committee to become HB 642; HB 479 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 509 passed the House; HB 526 passed the House; HB 530 with major amendment passed House committee; HB 537 with major amendment passed the House; HB 587 was reported by substitute by House committee to become HB 645; HB 589 passed House committee; SB 76 with minor amendments passed the Senate; SB 183 was reported by substitute by Senate committee to become SB 266; SB 249 was reported by substitute by Senate committee to become SB 269.

THIS WEEK FOR THE BAD: HB 388 passed House committee; HB 436 was involuntarily deferred; SB 6 with major amendment passed Senate committee.

SCORECARD

Committee action, May 23: SB 4, SB 6

DID YOU KNOW?

SB 6 by Sen. Butch Gautreaux would force charter schools to pay off a proportion of the unfunded accrued liability for retirement if they leave that system. Work by the Senate Retirement Committee already had begun on the bill and after additional time to consider things, the committee undid its amending from last week and then adopted other amendments that incorporated them. The most difficult seemed to be over how to define “proportionate share.”

Sen. A.G. Crowe raised a point of order that as the bill’s sponsor also was the chairman of the committee, that it would be better for him to turn the committee’s operation over to the vice chairman to keep the confusion to a minimum when dealing with his bill. Gautreaux said he had run the committee this way for eight years and was not going to change it now.

Opponents testified that they weren’t necessarily against the concept, but they thought without specifics, in terms of a formula to figure out just what this cost could be, that they couldn’t be in favor of the bill.

Legislative regular session through May 21, 2011

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 7 with minor amendment passed the House; HB 31 with passed the House; HB 55 with minor amendment passed the House; HB 415 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 426 with minor amendment passed the House; HB 479 passed House committee; HB 509 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 526 passed House committee; HB 633 passed House committee; HB 634 passed House committee; SB 13 passed the Senate; SB 66 with minor amendments passed the Senate; SB 113 with minor amendment passed Senate committee and the Senate; SB 114 with minor amendment passed Senate committee and the Senate; SB 131 with minor amendment passed the Senate; SB 137 with minor amendment passed the Senate; SB 144 with major amendment passed Senate committee and the Senate; SB 183 with major amendment passed Senate committee; SB 259 passed Senate committee.

THIS WEEK FOR THE BAD:

Committee action, May 16: SB 147, SB 171, SB 113, SB 114, SB 218

DID YOU KNOW?

SB 147 by Sen. Pres. Joel Chaisson would address what he termed a flaw in the workings of the Budget Stabilization Fund. He told the Senate Finance Committee when it hits its maximum, money that goes out has to come right back in. He wished to change it by allowing a phasing back in deposits, because otherwise the process meant a refilling almost immediately if the fund was at its maximum (caused by “excess” mineral revenues, when the fund is pushed over $850 million). Under this proposed constitutional amendment, the second fiscal year after use would require a quarter of it to be paid back annually until all last taken or the constitutional cap (at four percent of state receipts) was reached.

After amendment without objection, the committee reported favorably without objection. Then its companion SB 171 was dealt with similarly.

DID YOU KNOW?

SB 113 by Sen. A.G. Crowe would increase budget flexibility for times of budgetary deficit, who noted 71 percent of the current budget in some way was locked in to specific spending. Crowe noted that the current five percent variance allowed applied only to state funds, so his bill would allow the variance when a deficit came from state and/or federal revenue.

Legislative regular session through May 14, 2011

Even though bill introduction ended last week, a slight tick upwards in total numbers may continue as substitute bills are permitted under regular rules almost to the very end of the session. There also may be select inclusions and removals from the list of good and bad bills depending upon how they are amended. This past week, SB 81 was amended into a benign form and thus is removed from the list of bad bills.

Note also that some links are not present, as with HB 55, SB 66, and SB 76, and occasionally the count of bills that have moved from committee will be off from week to week. This is because the Legislature’s staff gets lazy at times and does not properly update all bills’ status or current texts. For example, with HB 55, it still lists as having been heard in committee with no action (that is, passage or involuntarily deferral, when in fact it was passed out of committee (see http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/05/bill_limiting_convicted_sex_of.html).

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 7 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 31 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 55 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 537 passed House committee; HB 549 with minor amendment passed the House; HB 636 passed the House; SB 13 passed Senate committee; SB 66 with minor amendment passed Senate committee; SB 76 with minor amendment passed Senate committee; SB 108 with major amendment passed Senate committee; SB 131 with minor amendment passed Senate committee; SB 137 with minor amendment passed Senate committee.

Committee action, May 9: HB 537

DID YOU KNOW?

HB 537 would merge Southern University New Orleans and the University of New Orleans. Already having discussed the policy aspects in the House Education Committee, the House Appropriations Committee now was to deal with the financial aspects.

Author and Speaker Jim Tucker outlined costs over the next two fiscal years, which would be less than $3.15 million, after which there would be no costs but would assume no savings as the same amounts of money were expected to be allocated to the universities whether merged. Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater said these costs were to the system in which the merged entity would exist, the University of Louisiana’s, to defray its costs to not have to dip into its other operating funds, which otherwise would be legally required.

Chairman Jim Fannin asked about the nature of the costs.

Legislative regular session through May 7, 2011

We're off to a slow start, and there was actually more action in bills trickling in than in existing ones being dealt with.

THE GOOD: SB 262 by Sen. Jack Donahue would provide tax credits to assist educational improvement (HB 633, HB 634, and SB 259 are similar bills to HB 309).

THE BAD: HB 600 by Rep. Damon Baldone would make state income tax less proportional; HB 622 by Rep. Michael Jackson would create a local government for the express purpose of raising property taxes for public transportation; HB 623  by Jackson would create a local government for the express purpose of raising sales taxes for public transportation; HB 630 by Rep. Harold Ritchie would increase taxes by reducing deductible items.

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 25 was withdrawn; HB 426 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 537 passed House committee; HB 549 with minor amendment passed House committee and passed the House; HB 586 passed House committee was substituted for by HB 636.

THIS WEEK FOR THE BAD: SB 8 was withdrawn; SB 69 passed House committee and the House.

SCORECARD

Total number of bills, House: 636; total number of bills, Senate: 265.

Total number of good bills, House: 44; total number of good bills, Senate: 19.

Total number of bad bills, House: 27; total number of bad bills, Senate: 12.

Total House good bills heard in House committee: 5; total Senate good bills heard in Senate committee: 0.

Total House bad bills heard in House committee: 0; total Senate bad bills heard in Senate committee: 2.

Total House good bills passed by House committee: 3; total Senate good bills passed by Senate committee: 0.

Total House bad bills passed by House committee: 0; total Senate bad bills passed by Senate committee: 1.

Total House good bills approved by House: 0; total Senate good bills approved by Senate: 0.

Total House bad bills approved by House: 0; total Senate bad bills approved by Senate: 1.

Total House good bills heard in Senate committee: 0; total Senate good bills heard in House committee: 0.

Total House bad bills heard in Senate committee: 0; total Senate bad bills heard in House committee: 0.

Total House good bills approved by Senate committee: 0; total Senate good bills approved by House committee: 0.

Total House bad bills approved by Senate committee: 0; total Senate bad bills approved by House committee: 0.

Total House good bills approved by Senate: 0; total Senate good bills approved by House: 0.

Total House bad bills approved by Senate: 0; total Senate bad bills approved by House: 0.

Total House good bills going to governor: 0; total Senate good bills going to governor: 0.

Total House bad bills going to governor: 0; total Senate bad bills going to governor: 0.

Total House good bills signed by governor/filed with Secretary of State: 0; total Senate good bills signed by governor/filed with Secretary of State: 0.

Total House bad bills signed by governor/filed with Secretary of State: 0; total Senate bad bills signed by governor/filed with Secretary of State: 0.

Committee action, May 5: HB 377, HB 426

DID YOU KNOW?

HB 377 by Rep. Kevin Pearson would remove legislators from using their credit in the Legislature to accrue additional benefits if already in a state retirement system. He noted to the House Retirement Committee that he leads that while new members not in a system to the Legislature could not get retirement benefits, accrual of service credit is currently allowed for members in a system, and even previous legislators under the old plan that allowed them to accrue retirement through service could do this without this bill.

Rep. Reed Henderson wanted clarity about dual employment and was told it applied in this circumstance. Not knowing it was possible to hold some offices dually in state government such as teaching and legislator, he wondered if this applied to so few people potentially that no law really was necessary. After this, Pearson said perhaps he should work on it more and try again at the next committee meeting.

DID YOU KNOW?

HB 426 by Rep. Chuck Kleckley would add to three of the state retirement boards a representative of the Division of Administration, which already has a representative of several statewide boards.