AP Wire

Legis-latest for May 28

by The Associated Press

The state construction budget, Common Core, Medicaid expansion and more...

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House unanimously agrees to overstuffed construction budget

**BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — An overloaded state construction budget that will leave the governor choosing which projects advance is headed to the Senate for debate after getting unanimous House support.

The budget — known as the capital outlay bill — contains about $330 million more in projects for the 2015-16 fiscal year than the state has money to spend.

Lawmakers in the House didn’t seek to pare down the list, instead adding more before voting 99-0 for the bill.

The construction budget outlines spending of fees and taxes dedicated to specific projects like road repairs and coastal restoration work. Other projects rely on state borrowing.

More projects are vying for borrowing dollars than available money. That would leave the governor to decide which ones advance for lines of credit.

House backs Common Core compromise as Jindal gets on board
MELINDA DESLATTE, Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Louisiana House agreed Wednesday to the main planks of a Common Core compromise, appearing to quiet the controversy over the education standards for the legislative session.

Near-unanimous votes for the two bills came as Gov. Bobby Jindal announced his support for the deal.

One bill by Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles, would set in motion a review of the multistate English and math standards with public meetings, legislative oversight and an up-or-down vote from Louisiana’s next governor. The companion bill by Rep. John Schroder, R-Covington, would place limits on the state’s use of standardized testing material from a consortium aligned with Common Core.

The proposals move next to the Senate for consideration, where they weren’t expected to hit roadblocks. The divisive feud over the standards had been much louder in the House.

“With the governor’s statement that they support the compromise, I don’t see any other speed bumps,” said Geymann, a chief legislative critic of Common Core. “It looks like it’s on autopilot at this point.”

After months of heated rhetoric, there was little discussion of the bills on the House floor before they were passed with 99-0 and 99-1 votes.

The deal doesn’t remove Common Core from Louisiana’s public school classrooms, but it calls for a wholesale review of English and math standards used in public schools, with public hearings in each of Louisiana’s six congressional districts.

Development and review of the standards would remain with the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, or BESE, which has already started a review process. But under Geymann’s bill, the House and Senate education committees and the governor would have the ability to reject the standards — in an up-or-down vote, not picking and choosing individual standards.

If the revised standards are rejected, Common Core would stay in place.

The Common Core standards are benchmarks of what students should learn at each grade level in English and math. They’ve been adopted by more than 40 states as a way to better prepare students for college and careers. Opponents say the standards are developmentally inappropriate and part of federal efforts to nationalize education.

The compromise proposal doesn’t dictate that Common Core must be replaced and, in fact, the standards review process could come up with only modest adjustments that largely keep the multistate standards intact.

Superintendent of Education John White, a Common Core supporter, backs the package of bills. Jindal, a vocal Common Core opponent, had been reticent about the agreement reached but announced his backing Wednesday.

“We are supportive of this compromise now that the superintendent and BESE have listened to the concerns of parents, legislators and the administration about the makeup of the standards review commission,” the Republican governor’s spokesman Mike Reed said in a statement.

Reed added: “The next step will be to elect leaders who are committed to getting rid of Common Core.”

The standards review wouldn’t be complete before Jindal leaves office. A decision on the standards would fall to Jindal’s successor, who will take over in January, and to BESE members elected this fall.

Senate-backed medical marijuana bill advancing in House
BRIAN SLODYSKO, Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Medical marijuana advocates have done this year what they failed to do in the past: push to the brink of final passage a bill that could finally make good on Louisiana’s 1991 medicinal pot law.

Though the law has been on the books for over 20 years, it was essentially meaningless because the state never developed a framework to get the drug to those suffering from cancer, glaucoma and a severe form of cerebral palsy.

A bill to do just that was approved without objection Wednesday by the House Health and Welfare Committee and could soon come up for a vote before the full House.

“It’s just adding clarity to the 1991 legislation,” said Sen. Fred Mills, R-Parks, sponsor of the measure, which has already passed the Senate. “When I convince (lawmakers) that they aren’t voting to legalize (marijuana) because it is legal, they are like ‘OK, give me the details and the facts.’”

As written, Mills’ proposal would have tight controls on the use and distribution of the drug. Only 10 pharmacies in the state could fill prescriptions. The Department of Agriculture and Forestry would oversee Louisiana’s sole cultivation facility and patients prescribed the drug would be closely monitored.

Another major provision specifies that the plant cannot be smoked. Patients could consume only refined forms of marijuana, such as oil.

The refinement process also changes the drug in another significant way: “You can’t get high on it,” said Mills, a pharmacist.

Last year Mills brought a similar bill, but it was defeated in committee after drawing opposition from law enforcement. That changed this year, after he worked with the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association to draft the bill. The Louisiana District Attorney Association remains opposed.

Pete Adams, executive director of the group, said passing the law would give pot proponents an opening. He predicted powerful business interests would push to liberalize Louisiana’s marijuana laws, like in Western states that have legalized recreational use.

“They begin with medical marijuana, and they expand to decriminalization, and finally to legalization,” said Adams. “There is an economic interest in this.”

Throughout the legislative session people who could benefit from medical marijuana have passionately advocated for the bill.

On Wednesday, the committee sat silent as Michele Hall of Vernon Parish spread out a “poisonous” array of medicines that she gives her young daughter daily for seizures. “This stuff doesn’t stop it,” said Hall.

But what does work is a refined marijuana product she previously obtained in Colorado.

“I can’t help her in this state without y’all’s help,” Hall told lawmakers.

Mills said people like Hall are his motivation to push the proposed law.

“That’s what’s keeps me going. Because when I think I can’t go any more, I get calls from those kinds of folks,” Mills said. “How dare us, as a state, not allow a doctor and a patient to make a decision.”

La. lawmakers advance Medicaid expansion financing tool
MELINDA DESLATTE, Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A proposal to help pay for Louisiana to expand its Medicaid program if the state’s next governor is interested in tapping into the billions of federal dollars available continues to zip through the Legislature.

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee approved the proposal by Republican House Speaker Chuck Kleckley without objection Wednesday. The House already has overwhelmingly agreed to the legislation, which heads next to the full Senate for debate.

Gov. Bobby Jindal opposes the Medicaid expansion allowed under the federal health care law, and lawmakers have repeatedly rejected expansion proposals. Kleckley downplayed the connection to Medicaid expansion, saying his legislation doesn’t lock Louisiana into any specific model, which still would need discussion at a later time.

“This is not a mechanism to expand Medicaid, nor does it make it easier to expand Medicaid,” he said.

But if the next governor, to be elected this fall, wants to use the billions in federal financing for a coverage expansion, Kleckley’s legislation would offer a way to draw down the cash without the state having to put up the full cost share.

Hospitals would pool their money to help pay Louisiana’s share of the cost.

All four major candidates running in the Oct. 24 election for governor, three Republicans and a Democrat, have said they would consider a Medicaid expansion.

The Louisiana Hospital Association crafted Kleckley’s proposal. The federal cash that would be available under a Medicaid expansion would help compensate hospitals for their care for the poor.

Kleckley, R-Lake Charles, said the measure could help the state’s budget, saving $100 million to $200 million a year in state spending on health care that could be covered through the Medicaid expansion funds. Those dollars, he said, could be shifted to other areas.

“This could generate significant savings for the state of Louisiana so that health care funding could be stabilized,” said Paul Salles, president of the Louisiana Hospital Association.

Medicaid expansion would offer government-funded insurance coverage to adults making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level — less than $33,000 for a family of four. It also would pour new money into the state for health care expenses.

Jindal, a likely presidential candidate, has opposed the idea as too costly for the state and as an inappropriate expansion of government-funded health care. But no one from his office or anyone else spoke in opposition to the proposal Wednesday.

Kleckley’s legislation would expire if Louisiana’s governor doesn’t expand the Medicaid program by April 1, 2016. Jindal cannot veto the legislation because it’s a concurrent resolution that doesn’t go to the governor’s desk.