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LaPolitics: How do you feel about where the Legislature ended up this year as to the reform conversation surrounding the Department of Children and Family Services?
Senate Commerce Chair Beth Mizell: Sometimes the conversation has a greater value than the actual final words on paper. At the end of the day, we all want a better Louisiana for our kids. It involves the quality of life for our children. I think we’ve had a painful conversation, so I’m hoping that after laying out the options that are out there maybe we’ll start seeing some progress. So much of it depends on transparency in the process. We’ve got to make sure we get that information so that we can see the areas that have improved, or where they need more attention. The legislators have repeatedly said we are on the same team, and I think we need to trust each other to all be going to a place that is an improvement.
What are your hopes for the Louisiana-Ireland Trade Commission that you extended this year?
Ireland has a need for energy, and we have liquefied natural gas that we can transport all over the world, so we’re looking at LNG. We’ve been looking at wood products. We have a surplus of wood because the demand is down in the pulp and paper industry. Dickie Brennan is on the commission. He’s got ideas. Kerry Stockwell with Tulane has been looking at an exchange program with Trinity College in Dublin. Some states have been able to work with Aer Lingus and put a direct flight to Dublin with their major airport. There’s actually a scheduled annual trip to Dublin. I’m not going this year, but I know we’ve got some legislators attending, so I’m sure they’ll come back with some ideas to help us move this forward. The really big goal is to have a specific targeted trade junket where we would go and talk directly to those companies that would link up to Louisiana companies.
You have raised serious concerns about the proliferation of sports betting. Is there more you would like to see the state do in this area?
I think we’ve got to be much stronger in prevention and counseling. We’re not reaching out to a lot of the young people that are really having long-term consequences about the decisions they’re making when they’re pulled into sports betting. But we’ve tied sports betting into so many things that we want to financially support. We don’t want to stifle sports betting because we’re funding a lot of organizations. We’ve got money going to early childhood education. We’ve got money going for the football teams in the universities. We need to start with conversations on things like that way before the session.
—They said it: “He’s one of the smartest, and the oddest man I’ve ever met.” –U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins on Elon Musk, as reported by WGNO
