Bills passed by Lafayette legislators this session will affect constituents including massage therapists, disabled veterans, postsecondary students with disabilities, teachers called to military duty, bingo players, fishing boat guides, members of the Krewe of Bonaparte and drunken school bus drivers.
Among the topline allocations are another $100 million down payment on the decades-old I-49 Connector project, a business lobby priority, and $25 million for a Heymann Performing Arts Center replacement
The bill fell two votes short of an override, with Lafayette’s delegation split along party lines.
The two houses finally approved a tediously crafted conference report on a $5 billion capital outlay bill for next year’s bricks, mortar and cement projects.
HB423 by Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro will require hospitals to submit quarterly reports to the Louisiana Department of Health on treatments for abortion complications.
The domestic abuse bill had significant bipartisan support but was pulled after a emotional clash between legislators.
The constitutional amendment will lower the cap on state income taxes to 4.75%.
LUS Fiber was finally squeezed in at the 11th hour to a bill creating an ambitious grant program to provide broadband service to deprived areas of the state, overcoming complaints about competition between the public and private sectors.
For the second time this week, a proposed constitutional amendment that would have expanded the Louisiana Supreme Court from seven to nine members fell short of the needed two-thirds majority.
While House members balked at concurring on Senate amendments to several important measures Tuesday, two Lafayette representatives moved to accept Senate amendments to three of their pet projects.
With just 55 hours remaining before Thursday’s 6 p.m. deadline for this session, the Senate in short order Tuesday morning duly and unanimously rejected the House-amended versions of the sports betting and mandatory kindergarten bills at the request of their authors.
Sprinting for the finish, the Senate blazed through some thorny legislation on marijuana, abortion rights and vaccine ‘anti-discrimination.’
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