As the second day of the Legislature’s special session reached mid-afternoon, lawmakers had introduced 22 bills in the House and 14 others in the Senate. While that might look like a strong start on paper, it becomes worrisome when considering there are roughly 12 days remaining in the special session, which adjourns June 4.
If there’s a silver lining, it’s that practically every policy idea included in Gov. John Bel Edwards’ call for the special session has been debated in one of this term’s eight other sessions.
“It’s 80 percent, 90 percent regurgitated,” Rep. Barry Ivey, R-Baton Rouge, told LaPolitics. “It’s been done.
Ivey and his other colleagues on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee met this morning to begin the process of reviewing revenue-raising bills, but no votes were taken. Not yet, at least.
Even though many of the bills are “low-hanging fruit,” as Ivey calls them, lawmakers are still waiting to see the associated fiscal notes, which offer a monetary analysis of how much each bill would cost or generate for the state.
Only 14 bills in the House and eight in the Senate had staff-generated fiscal notes attached as of this afternoon. Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne told committee members during their Wednesday meeting that the notes should be ready by this evening.
“Until we see those notes, we don’t know if we have a disagreement,” said Ways and Means Vice Chair Jim Morris, R-Oil City.
Members, however, do suspect they’ll be voting during tomorrow’s committee meeting as long as the rest of the fiscal notes show up by tonight. Lawmakers are also waiting to see how the budget process will proceed, especially since the spending plan adopted by the House and Senate during the regular session was vetoed by the governor.
Then there’s the lofty hurdle of reaching a super majority vote of 70 in the House, which has largely been unobtainable this term. Revenue Secretary Kimberly Robinson said the half-penny sales tax addition bill, HB 11 by Rep. Terry Landry, R-Lafayette, is the only bill recommended by the administration that will require 70 votes in the House.
“We had to do it,” said Dardenne of the decision to pursue only one super majority vote in the lower chamber. “It makes sense.”
General frustration and fatigue have likewise set in at the Capitol. Rep. Major Thibaut, D-New Roads said Wednesday’s opening salvo for the House Ways and Means Committee was marked by “lobbing grenades and looking back and pointing fingers and setting the precedent that we may not get a damn thing done.”
While a few members are publicly expecting the Legislature to need another third special session before the end of the fiscal year next month, Thibaut called that sentiment “ridiculous.”
Finally, there’s what Republicans will be willing to give in on this time around. Ivey suspected that the decision by the governor to leave GOP-backed Medicaid proposals out of his special session call could make it harder for Republicans to compromise with Democrats this session
Jeremy Alford will publish a daily update throughout the legislative session on Daily Report PM. Alford reports on Louisiana politics at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or on Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
