State lawmakers are planning to call themselves into a special legislative session that could begin as soon as next week to discuss issues related to Hurricane Laura recovery and shoring up the state’s dwindling unemployment insurance trust fund.
Legislators have been filing into the Capitol this morning to review the petition a majority of must sign before the call for the session can be issued. House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, doesn’t expect a problem getting the necessary signatures.
If the special session comes together as planned, it will be the third time lawmakers have met this year and the second time they have called themselves into a special session.
There’s been some question in recent weeks about whether an October special session was necessary, given that Congress remains stalled on a fourth COVID economic relief package and there may not be any additional federal money for lawmakers to grapple over.
But two existing problems looming over the state’s head—the devastation to school districts in parishes hit hard by Hurricane Laura earlier this month, and the rapidly depleting unemployment insurance trust fund—have prompted lawmakers to decide to act now rather than later, Schexnayder says.
“We’re trying to be a little proactive,” he says. “Hopefully, we can get it done and over with quickly.”
Schools in three southwest Louisiana parishes hardest hit by Hurricane Laura have been destroyed and some students have not been able to return to school nearly four weeks after the Category 4 storm’s landfall.
Because of the way state education dollars are allocated, however, lawmakers will need to approve moving money out of the troubled districts to other nearby districts so students can relocate there for the time being. The state took similar measures after Hurricane Katrina 15 years ago.
With respect to the unemployment insurance trust fund, lawmakers want to look at ways to replenish the fund without having to place additional tax burdens on businesses.
The fund, which had more than $1 billion in it at the beginning of the year, is running out of money because of pandemic-related jobs losses. Currently, just $150 million or so remains.
For now, the state has taken steps to borrow federal money, interest free, to keep the fund solvent. But ultimately that money has to be repaid and lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Legislature are loath to impose new taxes on struggling businesses to replenish the fund.
Democratic lawmakers also recognize the importance of meeting to address those issues and say they’re not opposed to the idea of the special session, but they have concerns.
“I know we have changes to make related to hurricane recovery and tweaks to the Main Street Recovery Program,” says Rep. Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, who chairs the criminal justice committee. “But I’m not interested in going in to fight about mask mandates and bars.”
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