The end of the session
17th June 2019 · 0 Comments
That an “eventful” legislative session closed on June 6 constitutes perhaps an understatement, but did the high profile machinations make it a consequential one?
Loud histrionics over the budget bill ended up with a modest one percent increase in state spending as the 2019 Louisiana Regular Session came to an end. House Republicans successfully did cut out about $700 million in “excess budget authority.” However, most of these funds came from federal appropriations earmarked for state agencies — which the federal government has already said will not be allocated this year. It’s equivalent to a child boasting that he plans to “sacrifice” the three dollars he usually spends on candy while forgetting to mention that his parents cut his $10 weekly allowance by 30 percent.
The Essence Festival’s $1 million in state support temporarily appeared endangered, amidst Republicans railing over ‘waste.’ In the end though, the state’s appropriation for the music festival (held at the Superdome in New Orleans) survived. Of course, that courageous decision occurred after lawmakers realized that they had a contract with the festival — one which would probably land them in court if they didn’t cough up the money.
Likewise, Louisiana’s HBCUs’ appropriations emerged mainly unscathed compared to recent years. The budgets of the state’s historically Black colleges even saw with a few small increases — with an extra $2 million appropriated for Southern University’s quest to keep its accreditation.
Higher education in general will receive nearly $50 million more, including full funding for TOPS scholarships. Early childhood education is in line for $15 million in new money, with $4.8 million in the Department of Education budget redirected to services for four-year-olds. Foster care services will cover youth up to age 21 thanks to $15 million more in state dollars.
The Legislature’s myriad of small generosities came thanks to a $119 million windfall which will likely go away in about five years — approximately when the “temporary” .45 in sales taxes expire. For that reason, GOP House Speaker Taylor Barras had spent months refusing to recognize this year’s surplus as recurring — in his role as one of the four votes on the Revenue Estimating Conference.
He joined the unanimous opinion in early April, though, and the main beneficiaries became teachers and support workers, who will now receive $1,000 and $500 and pay raises respectively. School budgets also will get an extra $39 million, as the Governor and the BESE Board desired. The gambit by House Appropriations Committee Chair Cameron Henry to zero-out those block grants out of the Minimum Foundation Formula failed.
Henry actually wanted to boost educators’ pay by an additional $200 more than BESE, and a $100 boost for support workers, but critics accused his $1,200 raise as a smoke screen to reduce school budgets by axing block grants. Henry responded with the rather fair point that the extra $39 million would exceed even the newly recognized surplus considerably, effectively causing a deficit next year. So legislators compromised — by hurting disabled kids.
Since House leaders feared that next year’s Legislature could have to come up with north of $40 million in “replacement revenue,” lawmakers ultimately agreed to strip out funding for an expansion of Medicaid to cover children with disabilities even though if their parents normally do not qualify. The TEFRA program shall not take effect until next June, so they reasoned that no current appropriation needed to be made. Yet, since no money remains in the budget to pay for TEFRA, its hard-fought existence now is in question.
Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon’s “reform bill” collapsed, but maybe the skeptical indifference which met the proposal — and it’s major backers, lobbyists for the insurance industry — came from the fact that no assurances that rates would come down were included in the proposal, nor were any attempts to end Louisiana’s discriminatory rates regime.
As Donelon’s predecessor Jim Brown noted, “What did come out of the legislative hearings was a devastating portrayal of how the Louisiana Insurance Department allows insurance companies to discriminate against a large number of Louisiana groups. In example after example, Louisiana drivers are penalized base on their income, their race, the type of job they hold and whether or not they are married.
“Did you know that there is a ‘widow penalty’ allowed by the Department of Insurance? That’s right. If you have lost your spouse, you are charged as much as 15 percent more for your car insurance by many companies operating in Louisiana. Most states prohibit discriminating against widows, but not Louisiana…If you are a blue-collar worker or if you do not have a college degree, a number of insurance companies operating in Louisiana charge you significantly more, by as much as 15 percent. When testifying before the Legislature last month, the insurance commissioner denied the companies could use a driver’s occupation when setting insurance rates. But he had to be corrected by his own chief actuary and then admitted yes, there was this discrimination. So unfortunately, you pay the insurance penalty if you have the wrong job title or if you don’t go to college. And there is absolutely no information or any data that shows this has any bearing at all on a policy holder’s safe driving record.”
Much of the rest which obsessed the minds and hearts of our Solons in Baton Rouge, throughout their laborious 45 work-days, remains all dependent upon the whim of the United States Supreme Court.
This Autumn, the people of Louisiana will decide whether not to amend the state constitution to specify that abortion does NOT constitute a constitutional right, thanks to 2/3rds of each chamber. Advocates argued for a secondary protection of the pro-life position so that pro-choice activists cannot use the human rights provisions of the state constitution as a justification to continue abortion-access, should Roe v. Wade be overturned.
Moreover, to expedite that possibility, the House and Senate passed the “heartbeat bill,” without any exceptions for rape or incest. Mirroring legislation in other states, it would ban all abortions affectively after the first six weeks of pregnancy – before most women know that they were even pregnant – if the U.S. Supreme Court approves. Until then, the legislation changes nothing, except perhaps endangering Hollywood investment in Louisiana’s film industry.
Maybe it was a consequential session after all, in a way which no legislator ever intended.
This article originally published in the June 17, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
