A total of 40 Louisiana lawmakers—20 from each the House and Senate—have made the “Honor Roll” on the LSU Student Government’s first ever report card on the legislative session. The lawmakers on the list, which include several Baton Rouge area representatives, scored a 90% or higher on the 2015 LSU Higher Education Report Card.
“With their support, the Louisiana Legislature was able to overcome the severe budget gap and fully fund higher education for the upcoming fiscal year,” read the report, which singles out local lawmakers, including senators Sharon Broome, Bodi White and Dan Claitor, as well as representatives Dalton Honore, Erich Ponti, Steve Carter and Darrell Ourso.
The report card evaluates nearly 50 bills in total, or “every piece of legislation that mattered to LSU students,” on a five point scale, the report says. Each lawmaker is also assigned a letter grade, based on their votes on the bills key to LSU students.
“Going forward, we hope to publish legislation of interest before the session, and to have a full time student lobbying commission research and administer the report card on a yearly basis,” reads a note from LSU Student Body President Andrew Mahtook accompanying the report card. “To be short: we students are here to stay.”
As reported Monday, many in the Baton Rouge business community have deemed the session among the worst in recent memory. The biggest problem with the session, from the business community’s perspective, is a series of legislation that reduces business tax credits, exclusions and rebates.
