Vote swap advances TIF bill

A political sleight-of-hand helped Rep. Michael Jackson, an independent from Baton Rouge, move a tax increment financing bill off the House floor Tuesday evening. House Bill 877, which is now pending action in the Senate, would create a new TIF district in Perkins Rowe for a planned Hilton Garden Inn being developed by Tommy Spinosa. Jackson originally attempted to attach his TIF project onto legislation by Senate President Pro Tem Sharon Weston Broome, D-Baton Rouge, but House members rejected the move for a variety of reasons by a vote of 53-37. Later in the afternoon, lawmakers by a margin of 66-14 voted down a completely unrelated measure, House Bill 367 by Rep. Gordon Dove, R-Houma, which tinkers with civil service rules in Terrebonne Parish. While both bills appeared dead as evening approached, Jackson unexpectedly took to the floor and persuaded the House to reconsider its vote on Dove’s civil service bill. When the second vote was taken, another 16 yea votes materialized, including several from the Baton Rouge delegation. That final vote was 82-9 on Dove’s legislation. When Jackson subsequently pulled his own HB 877 off the calendar for reconsideration (it creates the same Perkins Rowe TIF district as his original amendment), the legislation picked up an additional—and identical—16 yea votes, including many from the Houma-Thibodaux delegation. In the end, it passed by a surprising vote of 53-28, proving there’s always more than one way to resurrect a lifeless bill in the Legislature.—Jeremy Alford