Once again, this legislative session was different from any other but ended the same way. For a change, those showdown votes came on Sunday evening, leaving the last day without the usual drama. “For as contentious a session, it was the easiest last day in recent memory,” said veteran House Clerk Butch Speer. Except for a new last-day controversy: an unprecedented fight and close vote over the Minimum Foundation Program for spending $3.4 billion on K-12 education. Final passage, by 51-49, two votes short of the House majority, only heightened the controversy by raising a constitutional question that opponents plan to pursue in court. On Monday, Speaker Chuck Kleckley ruled that because the MFP formula is contained in a resolution, it only required a majority of those present, not the 53-vote House majority needed for a bill. House Democrats argued that because the MFP resolution had “the effect of law,” directing the expenditure of $3.4 billion, it would need the same vote as for passing a bill.
—Shortly after Public Service Commissioner Jimmy Field announced he would not seek re-election, Rep. Erich Ponti, R-Baton Rouge, “jumped right on it,” he said. “Absolutely, I’m running.” The second-term representative, who chairs the Commerce Committee, joins former Lafayette Parish Councilman Ed Roy, who declared weeks ago. Next to announce could be Natural Resources Secretary Scott Angelle, who told LaPolitics, “We definitely will be looking at it. I am meeting with folks over the weekend.” Without setting a timetable for a decision, he said, “We realize the decision will be sooner rather than later.”
They said it: “This is the same hooker wearing a different kimono.” —Rep. Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, on a bill to keep tolls on the Crescent City Connection, in The Times-Picayune
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
