Whenever Louisiana lawmakers have an extra $3 billion or so to spend in an election year, their annual session should produce a bumper crop of happy winners.
The 2023 legislative session was all set to end that way — until it didn’t.
Last-minute budgetary brinkmanship and legislative legerdemain slashed $100 million from the state Department of Health and Hospitals and nixed a permanent pay raise for teachers.
No doubt other fiscal gremlins lurk in the $44 billion spread across three budget bills that lawmakers chaotically approved in the final minutes of the session on June 8.
That kind of finish is what inspired the late Yogi Berra to observe, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
In a bygone era, I could make my annual list of “Da Winnas & Da Loozas” within hours of adjournment. Nowadays, the list remains in flux for weeks, depending on how Gov. John Bel Edwards wields his veto pen post-adjournment — and how determined his GOP foes are to override him.
Several factors further complicate the political calculus this year. Qualifying for the October 14 primary occurs in eight weeks (Aug. 8-10); if a veto session happens, it will begin around July 18 and would seriously conflict with lawmakers’ vacation, electioneering and fundraising plans; and, Edwards is term-limited, so he has no political exposure.
That makes him the most powerful — and, to his foes, the most dangerous — man in state government.
With that as backdrop, it’s time to crown the victors and mourn the vanquished, beginning with …
DA WINNAS
1. Gov. John Bel Edwards — The governor achieved his top priorities — investing hundreds of millions in infrastructure, boosting state funding for early childhood education and giving teachers more money. However, House members in the final hours rejected the proposed Minimum Foundation Formula for K-12 education, which automatically made the $2,000 teacher pay raise a one-year stipend instead. That hitch aside, Edwards worked with Senate moderates to rewrite the House’s lean budget bill, “bust the cap” on state spending, and derail some (but not all) of the most retrograde House bills. And, shortly after adjournment, he vowed to veto three anti-LGBTQ+ bills, comparing them to measures adopted in opposition to the Civil Rights Movement. “The judgment of history, I believe, will be very clear,” Edwards said.
2. GOP Moderates — The center held this year, particularly in the Senate, which deep-sixed many far-right bills pushed by the House Freedom Caucus. Moderates in both chambers ultimately got behind a budget compromise that “busted” the spending cap and still put hundreds of millions into a pair of “rainy day” funds. When it mattered most, the tail did not wag the GOP dog.
3. The Next Governor — Thanks to budget compromises and sound fiscal management this year and throughout Edwards’ tenure, Louisiana’s next governor will inherit a huge surplus and the largest reserve (“rainy day”) funds in state history. Let’s see how long Louisiana’s fisc stays this healthy.
4. Port Consolidation Advocates — Senate Bill 74 by Sen. Pat Connick, R-Marrero, requires all ports along the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to the Gulf to coordinate their funding requests and asset optimizations under the newly created South Louisiana Port Authority Advisory Commission. This is a huge win for economic development in southeast Louisiana.
5. Petrochemical Companies — If the state’s economy and revenue projections remain stable or grow, Louisiana’s hated corporate franchise tax will be phased out over four years under Senate Bill 1 by Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin. That will be a boon to petrochemical companies with massive investments in equipment and assets subject to the tax.
6. Carbon Capturers — Several measures sought to give local governments authority to hold up carbon capture projects by studying their safety risks and potential environmental damage, but all failed.
7. Domestic Violence Victims — The Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence secured a first-ever appropriation of $7 million for shelters to provide safe havens for victims of domestic violence. Advocates say that will double shelter capacity statewide.
8. The Film Industry — Filmmakers secured an extension of their tax credits for six more years beyond the credits’ scheduled 2025 expiration. Lights. Camera. Money!
9. The Hemp Industry — Last year, House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, authored the law allowing the sale of hemp products throughout the state. This year, he persuaded his celleagues to kill all bills targeting Louisiana's bourgeoning hemp industry.
10. Trial Lawyers — House Bill 601 by Rep. Mike Huval, R-Breaux Bridge, sought to codify timelines governing when an insurance claim starts, when the “undisputed” part of a claim must be paid and what constitutes “bad faith” by insurance companies. Those are key factors in litigation against insurance companies — and a boon to trial lawyers, who killed the measure in the Senate.
11. Young Children — Early childhood care and education got $44 million this year — a huge increase in direct state support. Elsewhere, two new laws will significantly help kids with dyslexia and other reading/literacy challenges. House Bill 69 by Rep. Joe Marino, NP-Gretna, requires dyslexia screening of all kindergarteners — at a cost of only $1.50 per child. House Bill 12, by Rep. Richard Nelson, R-Mandeville, requires testing all kids’ reading skills three times a year in grades K-3 — and giving them remedial help (or holding them back a year) if they can’t pass at least one test in their third-grade year. Which brings us to …
DA LOOZAS
1. The House Freedom Caucus — The GOP’s far-right flank lost its fight to keep state spending under the decades-old “cap” and had to endure mockery to boot. The Freedom Caucus, whose membership is supposed to be a secret, began wearing lapel pins that read “36” — the number of House votes needed to maintain the spending cap — early in the session. When the cap-busting vote finally came in the final week, only 19 House members voted against it — a sign that the caucus’ membership may have been a secret even to its organizers. Worse, some senators took to wearing paper notes with “36” crossed out and “19” written next to it. Schadenfreude aside, what really hurts are the 19 holdouts’ budget requests that got surgically removed from the money bills.
2. Insurance Companies — Lawmakers outlawed insurance policy provisions that deny claimants a public adjuster; refused to strip the insurance commissioner of his authority to deny premium hikes; and shot down an industry-backed bill to repeal Louisiana’s unique “three-year rule,” which bars companies from dropping or raising deductibles on homeowners who’ve bought policies for three consecutive years.
3. Jeff Landry — The attorney general made Kenner Rep. Debbie Villio’s “truth and transparency” juvenile records bill his session centerpiece and crusaded against librarians in the name of protecting kids from pornography. He lost on both fronts. Senators buried Villio’s measure in committee, and Rep. Paul Hollis’ bill to codify one of Landry’s anti-library legal opinions (supporting local governing authorities’ attempts to remove library board members at will) never made it out of a House committee. Landry also opposed breaking the spending cap, but a majority of House Republicans voted to bust it. He did support anti-LGBTQ+ bills, but those would have passed anyway.
4. Permitless Carry Advocates — Once again, the Senate holstered a so-called “constitutional carry” bill to allow anyone not barred from having a firearm to carry one, concealed or otherwise.
5. LGBTQ+ People — Spurred by national far-right groups, lawmakers approved three bills cruelly targeting the LGBTQ+ community, especially trans kids and their parents. However, Edwards says he will veto those bills.
6. The Working Poor — Lawmakers killed measures to increase the minimum wage, double the Earned Income Tax Credit, and establish an employer-funded state insurance program to provide paid family and medical leave for qualified employees. Legislators also slashed $100 million from the Department of Health and Hospitals in the final hours of the session — a move Edwards hopes to reverse.
7. Rape and Incest Victims — Conservative lawmakers cemented Louisiana’s status as the nation’s most anti-abortion state by refusing to grant exceptions for rape and incest victims.
8. Recallers — A bill by Hollis, R-Covington, to reduce the number of signatures required on recall petitions passed the House but languished in the Senate.
9. Lawmakers Themselves — After inflicting so much pain on vulnerable people, it’s fitting that legislators turned on each other. A bill by Marino to increase legislators’ salaries was shot down by gun-shy lawmakers afraid of potential voter backlash in the fall elections — even though the raise would take effect in the next legislative term. Elsewhere, a bill by Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Baton Rouge, would have greatly expanded “legislative continuances,” a little-known perk that gives lawyer-lawmakers unlimited continuances of court dates and other legal deadlines if they can cite (or create) conflicts with legislative duties. Senators put the kibosh the self-serving measure.
Stay tuned. There’s already talk among Republicans of a veto session.
Clancy DuBos is the politics editor of Gambit in New Orleans. His "Da Winnas & Da Loozas" recap of legislative sessions has been a staple of his political reporting for four decades. Email him at clancy@gambitweekly.com.