As far as the people of Louisiana are concerned, this year's legislative session did little to improve life here in the Bayou State.
As far as the people of Louisiana are concerned, this year's legislative session did little to improve life here in the Bayou State.
According to this report by The Daily Advertiser, lawmakers avoided making any real positive change, avoiding any real discussion on funding for higher-ed and Gov. Bobby Jindal's federally-rejected hospital funding plan. After wasting a lot of time talking about Common Core, the legislature also turned up their noses when it came to an expansion of Medicaid, raising the minimum wage, reducing penalties for marijuana possession and eradicating the state's unconstitutional anti-sodomy laws. And at the end of the day, Common Core was left as is.
"This will go down as a fairly insignificant session," UL Monroe political science professor Joshua Stockley tells the Advertiser. "I don't think the Legislature accomplished much, nothing substantial in terms of making any long-term impacts on Louisiana. The Legislature did nothing that affects us on a day-to-day basis. I see so little of merit. It was a fairly unspectacular session."
Other hot-button issues included an attempt to name the Bible as Louisiana's official book, which passed through committee but was ultimately shelved by the bill's author because his fellow lawmakers feared it might distract from more important debates.
But Jindal's biggest victory of the session came with the Legislature's defeat of the New Orleans levee board's lawsuit against the oil and gas industry. Despite warnings from close to 80 law professors nationwide - not to mention state Attorney General Buddy Caldwell - that the bill to kill the suit could have the unintended effect of compromising billions of dollars worth of damage claims filed against BP for its massive 2010 oil spill, Jindal wasn't phased and signed the bill into law on Friday.