‘LaPolitics’: Will Green discusses the session and what lies ahead for LABI

LaPolitics: From LABI’s perspective, what were the highlights of the recent regular session?

Louisiana Association of Business and Industry CEO Will Green: Strengthening cradle-to-career pathways was the big winner, the big one being House Bill 549 by Rep. Stephanie Berault, which sets up the Bayou Growth Opportunity Workforce Program, an employer-driven training initiative designed to help Louisiana businesses quickly build the skilled talent pipeline to match the growing need of this $100 billion of investment [in the pipeline]. The bill sets up the mechanism for that fund. We’re going to work with LA Works on finding the funding mechanism for this. We think there could be some federal dollars out there, there could be some existing dollars, there could be some public-private partnerships. 

What else stands out to you beyond workforce development? 

We haven’t updated our workers’ comp medical treatment fee schedule since the early 90s. And we keep people out of work and pay people on workers’ comp longer than just about any other state in the country. So we prioritized Senate Bill 408 by Sen. Brach Myers. It’ll set up a mechanism to update and revise our outdated, unbalanced medical fee schedule and rein in excessive litigation by cleaning up our safe harbor process. HB456 by Rep. Emily Chenevert gives employers the same ability as employees to file disputes, investigate claims and seek judicial review while continuing to pay benefits, which is something that has also been long sought in our workers’ comp system.

What were the biggest disappointments for LABI? 

We were hoping to continue the momentum on insurance reform. We wanted to capitalize on that and say, look, we’ve cracked the door. Let’s swing it wide open. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. HB526 by Rep. Kellee Dickerson would have put some responsible caps on damages but did not make it out of committee. HB1089 by Rep. Dennis Bamberg stalled. It would have created care accounts to ensure future medical awards are used specifically for legitimate long-term care instead of boats and cars and whatever else unrelated to medical expenses. 

What is your take on the failure of the amendment package last month? I know LABI was strongly in favor of Amendment 4, which dealt with the inventory tax. 

We know that being one of roughly seven states that still fully taxes inventory makes us an outlier, and it is a disincentive to do business and to expand business in Louisiana. We’ve got to do something to get out from underneath the inventory tax. We want to do it in a responsible manner, so we will continue to work with leadership, the Legislature and local governments to try to figure out a way out of the inventory tax. I believe that there’s a lot of local government officials who want the flexibility not to have to tax inventory because they know what a significant economic development opportunity that would be for them. So we look forward to continuing to have that conversation. You know, when you’re one of seven states left in the country that does something, it’s probably for a reason.

What’s next for LABI? 

We’ll let the dust settle. A lot of these bills that we talked about are before the governor for signature. Once the time for his signature or veto has passed, we will review all that. We’ll start to prepare our scorecard. And then we will get together with our board, with our leadership, with our issue councils, and we will start to plan for next year. One of the things that we’re doing through our foundation is trying to educate our members on the value of internships and apprenticeships. Overwhelmingly, the statistics have shown that if you can get a kid in a paid internship, then the kid comes out better prepared for the workforce. And they usually stay in the job and the state that they intern in. 

—They said it: “When I return home this weekend, I’ll make sure Margaret knows she’s famous.” –U.S. Sen. John Kennedy on social media, after a hearing witness mentioned that he had seen his previous post about naming his elliptical exercise machine “Margaret”

Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.