The TOPS constitutional amendment that includes the 4-cent tobacco tax renewal heads into legislative limbo, otherwise known as conference committee, after SB 53’s author Sen. John Alario, R-Westwego, asked senators to reject House changes. Capitol sources believe support is strong in the Senate for the House’s addition of the tobacco tax, but that senators want to hold onto the bill until the House acts on the state construction budget Thursday. While TOPS is fully funded in this budget, passage of the constitutional amendment this fall would free up $92 million, two years of tobacco payments, for the state general fund. That money would be used to replenish the megafund for economic development projects. Alario has said he is OK with adding the tobacco tax renewal, but he questions the dedication of the $12 million in annual revenue to the Health Excellence Fund, which already receives about $15 million in annual interest from the Millennium Fund, to which annual tobacco settlement payments currently are made.
— Introduced to the Senate today was Tara Harris, a Shreveport schoolteacher who has announced she will challenge Gov. Bobby Jindal this fall. Recognizing her, Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton, says, “She said she had just had enough.” Adley, the author of a failed bill to make public more records of the governor’s office, says, “She got my attention when she said the No. 1 issue in this state is transparency.”
(John Maginnis will publish a daily update on the legislative session at 3 p.m., available to LaPolitics Weekly subscribers on the Subscribers Only page at LaPolitics.com. You can register your user name and password on the Lapolitics home page.)
