1 week Ago
The Louisiana State Capitol is seen at dusk on March 11 in Baton Rouge. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save The new session of the Louisiana Legislature, which begins Monday and runs through June 12, is likely to be less dramatic than the four regular and special sessions of 2024, which saw newly elected Gov. Jeff Landry push for and in many cases get huge changes on multiple fronts, from elections to education, from taxation to crime and punishment.
Landry’s agenda is less sweeping this time around, and while the session promises more of the usual political and culture war showdowns, we think the Legislature’s most important business will center on the work of divvying up finite resources among needs that can feel infinite. Lawmakers averted the fiscal cliff that had been looming in 2025, but that doesn’t mean the coffers are flush. Landry has proposed a standstill budget amid much uncertainty out of Washington, where the DOGE process will mean cuts in health care and other programs and where the budget process now underway could well lead to a further drop in federal funding, the extent of which might not be known until after lawmakers are required to adopt a budget.
Complicating matters was the voters’ sound rejection last month of the overly complicated Amendment 2, which would have freed up some money now dedicated to specific funds. Legislators will be looking to replace the $2,000 stipend teachers have gotten in recent years, which was one of the failed amendment’s selling points. A likely casualty is Landry’s private school voucher program, which he’d hoped to ramp up this spring but which is getting legislative pushback.
We hope lawmakers focus on public schools first; the state’s teachers have done their part to help improve outcomes in recent years and deserve fair pay. And as lawmakers propose measures they believe will reduce Louisiana’s high auto insurance rates, we hope they remain focused on the real existential crisis in our state: property insurance costs so high that they threaten people’s ability to buy homes or stay in the ones they already own. To that end, we urge expansion of efforts to help homeowners install fortified roofs, which are proven to reduce exposure to wind damage.
We don’t know yet whether we’ll see a hit to Medicaid, but we’re glad to hear that Senate President Cameron Henry is urging his friend Steve Scalise, the U.S. House majority leader, and his colleagues to spread any federal cuts over time so that states can plan, and to not eliminate funding without addressing the problems the funding is intended to solve.
We hope they get the message. Paying to fix the state’s vast infrastructure is an ongoing challenge, and so far we like what we hear about a legislative effort to reorganize the Department of Transportation and Development so that it’s more efficient and transparent. At the Public Affairs Research Council’s annual meeting last week, several lawmakers suggested that this could build enough public confidence in the agency to eventually bring in long-needed dedicated funding, whether in the form of an increase to Louisiana’s low gas tax or some other source.
In general, we think that this idea of rebuilding trust among constituents is a good move after the voters, in rejecting all four amendments on the March 29 ballot, made it clear they think Landry and the Legislature had been trying to do too much, too fast, with too little explanation. We hope legislators also took away from the defeat that their constituents want them to support the governor when he’s right but speak up when he’s not. After all, the Legislature is a coequal branch of government.
This session, we look forward to watching lawmakers use the power vested in them wisely..
