The final week of the special session ended with weak signs of encouragement, says Jeremy Alford in his latest column. Lawmakers dreamed of adjournment and a set of tax bills were stuck in the increasingly muddy politics of the Louisiana Legislature.
“While the special session was anything but an exercise in policymaking, it did raise new questions about where, exactly, this term of state government is headed—and what, precisely, is wrong with the House, Senate and administration,” Alford writes. “Without the distractions of key bills moving through the process, some lawmakers looked within their own ranks for issues to pursue and debate.”
Internal issues emerged due in small part to the growing pains of lawmakers navigating two years of a shifting political landscape, Alford says. Issues also stemmed from an awareness that the next term of state government will present its own set of challenges and usher in a new way of doing business in Baton Rouge.
For example, the Black Caucus of yesteryear resurfaced in the House and its members, collectively, represent a force to be reckoned with for the remainder of this term, Alford says. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are attempting to organize via new delegation bylaws, and administration officials are wrestling with how to engage an increasingly independent Legislature.
“There’s little doubt that the stances taken by the Black Caucus (opposing an increase in the state sales tax structure and advocating income tax changes) are among the top storylines from the first special session of 2018,” Alford says. “But those storylines are likewise among the most misunderstood, with members insisting that their galvanization was based more on issues and membership maturity than politics and personalities.”
Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or on Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
