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Louisiana legislative session 2024: Victors and the vanquished [1]

['Piper Hutchinson', 'Louisiana Illuminator', 'Julie O Donoghue', 'Wesley Muller', 'Greg Larose', 'More Piper Hutchinson', 'More Julie O Donoghue', 'More Wesley Muller', 'More Greg Larose', 'Verite News']

Date: 2024-06-10  

Louisiana legislators spent nearly five months debating, bargaining and deal-making over the course of two special and one regular law-making sessions. Lawmakers went home exhausted, while lobbyists and assorted stakeholders counted a mixed bag of victories and defeats.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry emerged with a slate of victories for his arch-conservative agenda but didn’t escape unscathed. Most notably, the governor didn’t get the constitutional convention he requested or broad public records exemptions.

Still, Landry didn’t exactly leave the Capitol empty handed once lawmakers adjourned for good Monday evening. He will soon hold more power than any other Louisiana governor has exercised in decades.

Let’s look at who else prevailed during the 60-workday regular session, as well as those who came up short.

VICTOR: Jeff Landry

It’s long been said that Louisiana’s governor is all powerful, but it apparently wasn’t enough for Landry.

At his urging, lawmakers approved five bills expanding the governor’s authority to close off his office’s records from public scrutiny.

Assuming he signs the legislation, Landry will now have more control over who leads hundreds of state boards and commissions, including high-profile public university and college board chairs. He will also be able to stack the state Board of Ethics with more of his own direct appointees.

Information on the governor’s whereabouts will also be kept private under a new set of laws. At Landry’s request, legislators approved bills to withhold records and information about the Governor’s Mansion from the public.

People seeking documents from the governor’s office will also now have to be state residents. Those living outside of Louisiana — including journalists, businesses, policy experts and researchers — will face barriers toward accessing information about the governor and his activities.

Landry will also be able to deny public access to information he deems a security risk for him or his family.

VANQUISHED: LGBTQ+ youth

After years of gubernatorial rejection of anti-LGBTQ+ proposals, several bills that seek to limit discussion of LGBTQ+ identity and restrict what bathrooms transgender people can will become law.

The Legislature easily passed a bill to restrict discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools and one to prohibit transgender and nonbinary youth from using their preferred names and pronouns — even if they legally change them — in public schools.

Another bill restricts what bathrooms, changing rooms and sleeping quarters transgender people can use in public facilities.

Critics have repeatedly warned the bills could have a detrimental impact on vulnerable LGBTQ+ youth.

“Louisiana deserves better than laws that undermine the dignity of its youth,” Peyton Rose Michelle, executive director of Louisiana Trans Advocates, said in a statement.

VICTOR: Correctional facilities

Louisiana lawmakers put a lot of money toward prisons and jails, bringing the state budget in line with Gov. Jeff Landry’s tough-on-crime agenda.

Legislators took $157.6 million out of a state savings account to spend on criminal justice and public safety projects. Approximately $100 million of the funding is expected to go to local and state juvenile justice facilities.

Additionally, local police agencies will receive $1.2 million to incarcerate people under 17. The Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice also received $11.3 million for private security and $5.8 million to hire staff at the Swanson Center for Youth, a recently renovated juvenile prison in Monroe.

The state prison system also gets an additional $9.2 million for staff, benefits and compensation as well as $9.8 million for an offender management system and software. The state is also spending $9.9 million to install fiber optics at four prisons.

VANQUISHED: Early childhood education

Legislators cut $9 million out of early childhood education programs. That equates to losing approximately 800 of the current 16,000 seats, according to advocates.

VICTOR: State police

Louisiana State Police has received significantly more funding in the new state budget. Troopers will get raises worth $9 million, and patrol personnel will see a 50-cent-per-hour wage increase to $5 per hour for work “abnormal hours.” That will cost the state $3.2 million.

Landry is also adding a new state police troop in New Orleans, a $10 million expense.

VICTOR/VANQUISHED: Higher education

With new laws that give colleges more financial autonomy, higher education is going into the potential 2025 fiscal cliff with more tools to make it through the hard times. A long-fought battle, giving faculty and staff the ability to seek better retirement options, provides more financial flexibility to long-time employees.

But a proposal that would allow the governor to select the chairs of higher education governing boards has the potential to introduce even more politics into higher education, and a bill requiring an accounting of all diversity, equity and inclusion programs signals future restriction on that front.

VANQUISHED: Pregnant people

Lawmakers refused to pass legislation doctors supported to help them manage miscarriages under the state’s strict abortion ban. Physicians have consistently complained Louisiana’s abortion law could interfere with pregnancy care by not giving them enough flexibility to treat pregnancies that have gone wrong.

Additionally, lawmakers passed a law to classify two drugs used to treat a variety of pregnancy conditions as controlled dangerous substances. Mifepristone and misoprostol are used to administer an abortion with medication, but they also help manage miscarriages of wanted pregnancies and to induce labor. The new classification of the drugs could make them more difficult to access.

VICTOR: Anti-abortion movement

Anti-abortion advocates were not only able to shut down all legislation to add flexibility to the state abortion ban, they also got lawmakers to allocate $4 million to anti-abortion pregnancy resource centers.

It’s more public money than those organizations have received in the past. Rules for how the $4 million in state funding can be spent are also more flexible than those for federal dollars the centers used to receive.

Anti-abortion advocates were also able to push back on efforts to update the state’s in vitro fertilization laws. Fertility treatment advocates wanted to remove a description of embryos as “human beings” from the state law to ensure IVF remains available in the state, but opponents were uncomfortable with the language change.

VANQUISHED: Public schools and teachers

For the second straight year, lawmakers chose not to advance a revised formula for the Minimum Foundation Program, which determines how much money the state provides per pupil to public schools. The ripple effect for local school districts could mean they have to pony up more of their money to support their schools.

It will also be two years in a row that public school teachers and staff received $2,000 and $1,000 stipends, respectively. This is lieu of a permanent raise that Republican legislative leaders avoided, citing a pending state revenue shortfall. Critics said the temporary pay bump shows the continued lack of lawmakers’ commitment to education.

Public schools would also see less money once Louisiana adopts an education savings account program. The Legislature agreed to have the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education set up the framework needed for families to use public money on private schools, but it did not commit any dollars for the actual vouchers. The earliest such spending could take place in the 2025-26 school year.

VICTOR/VANQUISHED: Libraries

Ultra-conservative lawmakers walked into the session with a slew of proposals to criminalize librarians. While the most extreme proposals stalled, two that play off the library culture wars currently waging in Louisiana are headed to the governor’s desk.

In a surprise move in the final days of session, the Senate passed a bill to allow parish library systems hire directors who are not certified librarians. Senators added language that House committee rejected to allow library board members to be dismissed without cause.

The revived language is a response to some parish governing authorities who have sought to remove library board members opposed to becoming allies in their conservative culture wars.

VICTOR: Domestic violence survivors

Landry removed $7 million domestic violence shelters expected to receive from his initial state budget proposal, but legislators added the funding back. The money, which the shelters had received last year, is being used to add shelter beds and provide programs for children.

VANQUISHED: Constitutional convention

Louisiana looks a lot less likely to hold a constitutional convention this year. Landry initially pitched having the event at the end of the regular session, but lawmakers were unwilling to go along with that proposal.

The governor then got on board with the idea to hold a convention in August, which would have allowed the proposed new version of the constitution to appear on the November ballot. Senators weren’t willing to go along with that proposal either, however.

The Legislature adjourned without any firm commitment to hold a convention, so it’s not clear the event will happen.

VICTOR: Louisiana seafood

Reports of a struggling local seafood industry priced out by cheap foreign catch spurred lawmakers to pass sweeping changes. They untangled a confusing patchwork of laws that were not being enforced.

Every restaurant and eatery in Louisiana that serves shrimp or crawfish will now have to state explicitly and clearly, either on menus or a sign at the entrance, where the product comes from even when it is domestic. This is an enhanced version of a 2019 law that required such disclosures only from restaurants that serve imported shrimp or crawfish, a provision many restaurants have ignored with impunity.

The new law should help limit vague or misleading dish descriptions on menus. Violations will carry fines of up to $2,000.

Another aspect of the law applies to seafood wholesalers and grocers. It prohibits misleading packaging or marketing that uses Louisiana-related images and phrases on any foreign seafood products sold in Louisiana. Foreign companies can continue to use such marketing if they indicate the seafood’s country of origin on the front of the package.

The legislation also empowers state agencies to test commercial seafood for banned veterinary chemicals and issue heavy fines for any misrepresentations of a seafood product’s origin.

The law also requires all school districts, state agencies and state institutions that serve seafood use only domestic shrimp and crawfish.

The changes take effect Jan. 1, 2025.

VICTOR/VANQUISHED: Government transparency

The session saw an unprecedented number of bills that threatened to weaken or outright repeal major elements of the Louisiana Public Records Law, which allows citizens to examine and copy government documents — a core element of a transparent democracy.

Among them was a measure from Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Ville Platte, that would have almost entirely negated the public records law, and a proposal by Rep. Michael Melerine, R-Shreveport, that would have exempted the governor from having to follow the law. Neither made it through the Legislature.

Lawmakers did pass a bill from Rep. Steven Jackson, D-Shreveport, that will allow local governments to withhold economic development records from the public for up to two years, including any expenses related to business negotiations.

VANQUISHED: Disabled veterans

A controversial new law stems from an often misunderstood issue involving military veteran disability benefits and loopholes in federal law that have created an unregulated industry. Upstart businesses have made windfall off of “claims consulting,” a practice that is illegal under federal law but difficult to enforce.

Tons of non-accredited claims consulting companies offer to assist veterans in getting higher disability payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs in exchange for a percentage of their payments. The assistance involves telling veterans how to fill out forms, a service available for free from many VA-accredited organizations such as the American Legion.

Landry allowed the bill to become law by neither signing nor vetoing it despite strong opposition from his own state VA secretary and a long list of veteran service organizations such as the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans.

VICTOR: The anti-vax crowd

Armed with medical misinformation, Rep. Kathy Edmonston, R-Baton Rouge, succeeded in gaining approval for two measures that reinforce parents’ existing ability to let their school-age children opt out of mandated vaccinations.

One specifically singles out the COVID-19 on the state-approved list for required immunization. Current law already allows families to bypass any vaccine for medical or religious reasons. The other proposal calls on schools to notify parents that their children can forego vaccines. Critics note there’s no corresponding information going out to families explaining how vaccines work or the importance in limiting outbreaks of highly contagious diseases.

Both of Edmondston’s bills are on the governor’s desk.

VICTOR/VANQUISHED: Hungry families

Lawmakers stood up to the governor and included $3.6 million in the state budget to pull down $71 million more from Washington to provide summertime food assistance for students.

David Matlock, Landry’s secretary for the Department of Child and Family Services, said in February the program doesn’t lead Louisiana recipients toward the “path to self-sufficiency.”

“Hogwash” was the response from Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, after being told DCFS and the state education department weren’t able to coordinate efforts to dole out the food assistance this summer.

McFarland, the Legislature’s lead author on the state budget, and Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, saw to it that the Legislature provided the money needed, although the governor could still issue a line-item veto to remove it.

Landry has already rejected two bills that would have allowed the state to provide grants and loans to grocers that want to open stores in the state’s food deserts. Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, and Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Baton Rouge, each sponsored a version of the Healthy Food Retail Act.

In his veto message for both proposals, the governor noted lawmakers had not appropriated any money for the loans and grants and labeled the bills unfunded mandates.

This article was originally published by Louisiana Illuminator and appears here under a Creative Commons license.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and Twitter.

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