An overview of the hottest issues to keep tabs on during this year’s regular session.
By Jeremy Alford
The 2012 regular session, which will be unleashed on the public March 12 like a political Kraken, is brimming with new personalities. Last year’s election season saw to that. There’s Rep. Paul Hollis, R-Mandeville, a rare coins dealer who has a black belt in karate. And Rep. Clay Schexnayder, R-Sorrento, probably the only certified mechanic in the Legislature and the only lawmaker to race an IMCA/UMP modified race car.
Rep. Kenny Cox, D-Mansfield, was once assigned to the Pentagon as an Army officer and was actually at work on Sept. 11, 2001. Fellow rookie Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, comes to the Capitol after spending a large part of her life as a missionary living in extremely harsh conditions.
And don’t forget about Rep. Chris Broadwater, R-Hammond, who had to be brought to the emergency room the same day he was elected last year to have a chicken bone surgically removed from his throat (a few hours later, his wife also went into labor).
Yup. There are plenty of new stories out there this year. New faces, too. But they’re slightly less jarring than the issues on deck. Here are five worth keeping an eye on between now and June 4, the date the session is slated to adjourn. 
THE BOBBY FACTOR: This is the beginning of the end. Year one of term two of the reign of Gov. Bobby Jindal. While his first term was complemented with tap dancing routines (see: ethics reform and a failed pay raise for lawmakers), Jindal is swinging for the fences with substantive reforms in the stadia of education and retirement. Most noticeably, he seems to be less interested in national politics. Will this be the year Jindal governs instead of politicks? Time will tell.
EDUCATION OVERHAUL: If you believe the conservative hype, the era of the teacher unions is nearing an end as well. If nothing else, Democrats and Republicans alike are sick and tired of Louisiana’s broken education system. Business and industry, for its part, is backing Jindal’s call for a revamp of tenure procedures and a new accountability system. Relatively new lawmakers, though, have no idea what’s coming. There are nearly 50,000 public school teachers in Louisiana and they, along with their friends and family, will be lobbying lawmakers with a passion. As one lawmaker recently pointed out, being lobbied by a elementary school teacher is one thing. Being lobbied by your own elementary school teacher is another.
PENSION REFORM: This new term in state government will likely witness Louisiana’s total unfunded accrued liability, or UAL, surpass the $20 billion mark. Depending how lawmakers and the administration react, that figure may mushroom into their collective legacy. Jindal has a plan, but the thousands of people in Louisiana’s public retirement systems will have something to say about it. For more on the influence of the masses, see education reform.
TORT-O-RAMA: Expect some serious policy maneuvers during the session in regard to oil and gas legacy sites. Such sites refer to oilfields that have been contaminated and require mitigation. Who should pay for what and how the sites should be cleaned are at the heart of the debate. It will also probably end up being the biggest payday around for Louisiana’s most skilled lobbyists, pitting landowners and trial lawyers against Big Oil.
THE BUDGET: The proposed budget stands at $25.5 billion. It has an estimated shortfall of $895 million. Compared to the current year budget, it’s being decreased by about $61 million. The UAL, known more commonly as debt, is $20 billion all by itself. You don’t need an abacus to figure out that this challenge is very real and threatening. Rather, what needs to be figured out by the elected class is how to address the situation without kicking it into next year, which is exactly what happened last year.
Jeremy Alford is a freelance journalist from Baton Rouge. You can contact him directly through his website at www.jeremyalford.com.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
Most Read
in case you missed it
Subscribe to this comment's feed