A bill to reinstate Louisiana’s angel investor incentive heads to the Senate after passing the House of Representatives yesterday. The Baton Rouge Area Chamber and other regional business groups back the legislation, which would offer early-stage investors a 35% rebate on money invested in qualified high-growth-potential companies. The program would be capped at $5 million per year. Investors wouldn’t be able to claim their rebates for the first two years, lessening the immediate impact on the state’s fiscal picture, BRAC CEO Adam Knapp says.
Knapp and other regional chamber heads hope to convince the Senate Finance Committee members to undo House cuts to the economic development megafund—cuts he says could impact Capital Area job creation this year and next—and to regional marketing programs.
Higher education, BRAC’s top priority for the session, has been “a mixed bag,” Knapp says. BRAC-supported legislation commonly known as GRAD Act 2.0, which would give universities greater autonomy in managing their finances, is on today’s Senate education committee agenda. Legislation allowing two-year schools to raise their fees to match the highest level of such schools throughout the state has progressed, while tuition and fee measures that would have applied to four-year schools have stalled. “Even though higher ed remains in a fiscal crisis, the Legislature seems unwilling either to fund it with state dollars or to allow the institutions to fund it themselves,” Knapp says. —David Jacobs
