Welcome to the 2023 Regular Session version of the Louisiana Legislature Log. As always, it begins with a recitation of good, bad, and ugly bills prefiled in advance of the Louisiana Legislature’s regular session.
THE GOOD: HB 5 by Rep. Larry Frieman would make fathers of established paternity pay half of child-bearing expenses borne by the mother unmarried to him; HB 8 by Rep. Dodie Horton would require display of the national motto “In God We Trust” in every elementary and secondary education classroom; HB 9 by Rep. Rhonda Butler would give students with disabilities school choice; HB 12 by Rep. Richard Nelson would require most students failing reading in third grade to repeat; HB 16 by Rep. Laurie Schlegel would discourage chronic burglary; HB 25 by Rep. Paul Hollis would induce greater accountability from parish library boards of control; HB 47 by Nelson would amend the Constitution to allocate a quarter of declared nonrecurring revenues to reducing unfunded accrued liabilities; HB 51 by Jonathan Goudeau would provide more accountability for receiving unemployment insurance payments (similar bill: HB 456); HB 62 by Rep. Tony Bacala would start rolling off early the 0.45 percent temporary sales tax (similar bills: HB 71, HB 170; HB 257); HB 66 by Rep. Debbie Villio would discourage criminal behavior by people under corrections supervision (similar bills: HB 70, HB 149, HB 151, HB 188); HB 81 by Rep. Raymond Crews would protect school personnel from harassment and children from unscrupulous activists; HB 98 by Rep. Lance Harris would expand school choice for all children; HB 131 by Rep. Danny McCormick would expand firearm concealed carry (similar bill: HB 234); HB 146 by Rep. Mark Wright would create a flat income tax (similar bills: HB 147, HB 241, HB 303); HB 152 by Rep. Beryl Amedee would amend the Constitution to codify parents’ rights; HB 156 by Rep. Philip Devillier would reduce outlay from the Motion Picture Investors Tax Credit (similar bill: HB 214); HB 159 by Rep. Les Farnum provides for a supplemental annual canvass of voters; HB 166 by Bacala would improve budgeting; HB 173 by Devillier would phase individual and trust income taxes; HB 182 by Rep. Kathy Edmonston would level the field for vaccinations; HB 203 by Devillier would amend out of the Constitution the property tax exemption for food for home consumption, certain utilities for residential use, and prescription drugs (with HB 204 putting that into statute); HB 208 by Rep. Alan Seabaugh would make it more difficult for young adults to evade responsibility for committing crimes (similar bill: SB 159); HB 212 by Hollis would change recall standards from a proportion of the electorate to a proportion of the previous vote; HB 246 by DeVillier would phase out corporate income taxes; HB 263 by Rep. Ryan Bourriaque would level the playing field for alcohol manufacturers (similar bill: HS 524); HB 278 by Rep. Jack McFarland would amend the Constitution to increase mineral revenues to parishes and mandate much of that be spent on transportation; HB 291 by Rep. Chuck Owen would ensure visitation rights to institutionalized clients; HB 304 by Rep. Joe Orgeron would prevent candidates resigning office from then filling the vacancy (similar bill: HB 362); HB 307 by Rep. Zee Zeringue would prevent overpayment of officials’ lodging, meals, and incidental expenses; HB 311 by Rep. Blake Miguez would prevent outsourcing of elections to foreign or private concerns; HB 315 by Chuck Owen would create more opportunity for public schools to instruct in the basics; HB 321 by Vilio would increase transparency about criminal investigation and prosecution; HB 326 by Nelson would improve teacher education (similar bill: SB 163); HB 340 by Rep. Troy Romero would reform unemployment compensation to increase encouragement of employment; HB 417 by Rep. Brett Geymann would bring a better long-term outlook to budgeting (similar bills: HB 418, HB 451); HB 437 by Nelson would create a flat corporate income tax; HB 461 by Rep. Mary DuBuisson clarifies into statute legal pregnancy termination not abortion; HB 463 by Rep. Gabe Firment would prohibit sex reassignment surgery on minors; HB 466 by Horton would prohibit school employee discussion of sexual identity outside of state content standards except as part of counseling with parental consent; HB 507 by Rep. Rick Edmonds would reduce taxpayer costs for public notice printing; HB 529 by Edmonds would increase pharmacy options for some state and local employees; HB 558 by Rep. Beau Beaullieu would create a single entry system for merchants paying state and local sales taxes.
SB 1 by Sen. Bret Allain repeals the corporate franchise tax (similar bills: HB 197, HB 364, HB 387); SB 6 by Allain would eliminate the Quality Jobs Program if the franchise tax is eliminated; SB 7 by Sen. Heather Cloud would allow parents more discretion over their children’s public library materials consumption; SB 10 by Sen. Franklin Foil would increase the tax credit to pay for school tuition; SB 13 by Sen. Mike Fesi would clarify parameters of legal actions in the designated coastal zone; SB 19 by Allain would cut corporate income tax rates by exchanging the disallowing for corporations of the inventory tax credit; SB 48 by Sen. Jay Morris amends the Constitution to strengthen bail requirements (similar bill: HB 498); SB 51 by Sen. Barry Milligan would increase cleaner energy provision through cost-shifting; SB 63 by Sen. Beth Mizell would strengthen religious protections; SB 90 by Sen. Robert Mills would create a more rational and fairer water resources sales system by the state; SB 128 by Morris would disallow enrollment and aid decisions by secondary education institutions to be made on the basis of race, sex, or national origin; SB 158 by Sen. Eddie Lambert would increase school protection; SB 174 by Sen. Stewart Cathey would mandate periodic review of college faculty members that could lead to dismissal of tenured individuals; SB 176 by Rep. Jeremy Stine would increase the personal exemption and standard deduction for individual income taxes and index these; SB 197 by Sen. Barrow Peacock would grant beneficial flexibility to teacher and principal hiring; SB 201 by Sen. Sharon Hewitt would increase opportunities for public participation in many statewide board meetings by electronic means; SB 203 by Cloud would reduce illegal voter registrations; SB 208 by Talbot would make the Commissioner of Insurance appointive.
THE BAD: HB 17 by Rep. Candace Newell would legalize pot (similar bill: HB 24); HB 21 by Rep. Joe Stagni would force school districts to grant overly-generous benefits to parttime employees; HB 40 by Rep. Delisha Boyd would circumscribe unnecessarily business and other organizations’ personnel decisions (similar bill: SB 148); HB 97 by Rep. Larry Bagley would amend the Constitution to extend supplemental pay made by the state to local governments (related bill: HB 100); HB 117 by Rep. Aimee Freeman would create a needless unfunded mandate for schools; HB 149 by Rep. Joe Marino would increase representatives’ pay to $60,000 and senators’ to $114,000 annually; HB 162 by Rep. Matthew Willard would increase the Earned Income Tax Credit through 2030; HB 164 by Rep. Kenny Cox would require lowering academic standards at technical schools; HB 175 by Boyd would restrict unduly firearms rights; HB 211 by Rep. Edmond Jordan would amend the Constitution to limit use of helpful prison rehabilitation methods; HB 228 by Rep. Kyle Green would decrease deterrence by eliminating the death penalty; HB 242 by Rep. Stephanie Hilferty needlessly limits school disciplinary options; HB 250 by Rep. Stuart Bishop would allow assessors to increase their salaries unilaterally regardless of need; HB 283 by Rep. Vanessa LaFleur would inappropriately circumscribe employer discretion in utilizing employee wage history; HB 286 by Boyd would allow for too rapid expungement of a conviction for marijuana possession; HB 322 by Willard would remove effective and unbiased procedures for fighting crime; HB 346 by Boyd would allow killing the unborn only because of the circumstances behind their conception; HB 351 by Rep. Mandie Landry would allow workers hooting up using the state’s open ended medical marijuana to draw workers compensation; HB 374 by Rep. Ed Lavardain would kill jobs by raising the state’s minimum wage (similar bill: SB 149); HB 380 by Rep. Randal Gaines would reapportion Supreme Courts districts by splitting needlessly parishes; HB 396 by Rep. Sam Jenkins would allow ex-convicts not to have to earn their way back onto voter rolls; HB 467 by Marino would increase supply for hooting up; HB 490 by Rep. Rodney Lyons would allow unscrupulous influencers to assist in registration of future voters; HB 491 by Rep. Denise Marcelle would prevent tax cuts; HB 494 by Rep. Pat Moore would allow election influence within 600 feet of polls; HB 519 by Rep. Barbara Carpenter would allow for too much mischief in registration of and voting by incarcerated non-felons; HB 522 by Freeman would weaken abortion protections (similar bill: HB 549); HB 538 by Jenkins would necessitate a costly solution to a nonexistent problem of inadequate early voting opportunities; HB 545 by Jordan would reduce incentives for inmates to earn good behavior rewards; HB 552 by Hilferty would encourage widespread increased state subsidization of homeowner choices; HB 562 by Speaker Clay Schexnayder would strengthen and give new life to the wasteful Motion Picture Investor Tax Credit; HB 588 by Gaines would review with unnecessary and costly bureaucracy non-unanimous jury convictions; HB 596 by Freeman would create an expensive and unnecessary new benefit obligating business; HB 606 by Jordan would create unnecessary and unfair burdens on landlords.
SB 11 by Sen. Jay Luneau would prohibit use of useful information in pricing vehicle insurance; SB 33 by Sen. Bodi White would make permanent an increase in supplemental pay for local public safety employees; SB 35 by Sen. Cleo Fields would create too great of a regulatory burden on chemical manufacturers; SB 86 by Fields would amend the Constitution to circumscribe too much the authority to grant industrial tax exemptions (similar bill: SB 126); SB 111 by Sen. Royce Duplessis would allow ex-convicts not to have to earn expungement of their records; SB 168 by Fields would add to and rearrange needlessly First Circuit Court of Appeals judgeships; SB 212 by Duplessis would create a suspect red flag law for firearms; SB 216 by Sen. Gary Carter would create an unenforceable law regarding firearm possession.
THE UGLY: HB 64 by Bourriaque would double the number of parishes that pay members of library boards of control; HB 259 by Rep. Denise Marcelle would allow nongovernmental organization appropriations to stretch to two years; HB 441 by Bryant would create a new crime of assaulting a utility worker despite other statutes defining assault; HB 504 by Seabaugh would remove the requirement that prevents highly-paid unclassified state employees from dodging state car registration and licensing to drive; HB 534 by Carpenter would swap needlessly a few precincts among a few House districts.
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