A rare fall extraordinary session of the Louisiana Legislature recently adjourned where bills were passed dealing with coronavirus response and hurricane relief.
For State Senator Heather Cloud and State Representative Rhonda Butler, both Republican small business owners from Turkey Creek, the most important outcome of the session was sealing up the state’s unemployment trust fund that was nearly depleted.
According to Representative Butler, the issue began when many state residents were drawing nearly $800.00 a week in unemployment during the COVID lockdowns. “It was drawing down our unemployment insurance fund,” she said.
If the fund ran out, businesses across the state would have had to pay a solvency tax which amounted to 30% per employee.
Senator Cloud said, “There was nothing we could have done to stop it other than preventing it. It would have been huge.”
“We fixed that gap,” said Representative Butler, “and I’m really excited about that.”
Receiving most of the attention post-session are the bills passed to curb the governor’s emergency powers during this pandemic.
Representative Butler said she went into the session hoping to work as a team to gain more legislative oversight regarding the emergency powers. One piece of legislation did just that and calls for state legislators to have a voice in future conversations.
“That’s the one thing I truly supported because I believe in working in teams,” she said. “In the end, I think we can all agree on some things. That’s the part I like that we can all come together.”
As Senator Cloud explained, much of the debate in session, however, was over legislation passed in the early 1990s by then Representative Woody Jenkins allowing for a simple majority of either chamber to remove a governor’s proclamation.
The House of Representatives signed such a petition this year and sent it to Governor John Bel Edwards. The governor subsequently sued the House over the issue.
Senator Cloud said there are constitutional questions over the issue but said Attorney General Jeff Landry believes “it is absolutely constitutional for one chamber to make that call.”
Others, though, believe it takes both chambers of the legislature to sign a petition designed at dissolving a governor’s proclamation.
Senator Cloud said those making that argument believe “it’s not the true will of the legislature because it’s only one chamber and the majority of the whole legislature.”
She added, “The House will have to sue the governor, and it will have to be decided in court.”
For Senator Cloud, she would like to see a court decision on the issue because it would determine what would happen if “we should be in this position again or should we be in this position in December. We will know how to proceed.”
“That’s why the courts are there,” she continued.
Dealing with hurricane relief, the legislature voted to appropriate $20 million in capital outlay funding for Southwest Louisiana. Representative Butler said those monies are “to kick start $130 million worth of projects.”
She went on to say the legislature also passed a bill to protect TOPS for students in the region who were displaced by Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta.
Another hurricane relief piece of legislation dealt with MFP (Minimum Foundation Program) funding for schools.
“The state was losing a lot of money for schools in that region because the kids were not in school,” said Senator Cloud. “The state was able to go in and change that to take into account the disaster because it would have been catastrophic.”
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Tony Marks
Editor