Legislative Report

LaFleur’s museum bill gets committee hearing Thursday SB230 would remove five museums from control of Secretary of State

by Mike Stagg

Sen. Eric Lafleur's SB230 would remove five museums from control of Secretary of State. State money woes are the basis for the move.

Lafleur
Photo by Robin May

The Senate Education Committee will consider SB230 today which would remove five Louisiana museums from the control of the secretary of state's office. Sen. Eric Lafleur, author of the bill, says the secretary of state doesn't have the money to operate the museums, some of which have never opened.

Lafleur says he authored the bill at the request of Secretary of State Tom Schedler.

"The secretary is having a tough time paying for elections and can't afford to run these museums," Lafleur explains. "So, the bill would remove five museums from the control of his office."

The Ville Platte senator was interviewed by phone on Thursday morning.

"Only one or two of those museums ever opened their doors," Lafleur says. His bill would allow the museums to revert to the control of the entities that created them.

The affected museums are the Livingston Parish Museum and Cultural Center, the Louisiana Military Museum in Ruston, the Jean Lafitte Marine Fisheries Museum in Lafitte, the Shreveport Water Works Museum and the Spring Street Historical Museum, also in Shreveport.

Lafleur's bill is the latest evidence of how the state's prolonged budget crisis has affected the protection of its cultural assets. Lafleur says that years ago he introduced a bill that would have consolidated all museums under the control of the lieutenant governor who has responsibility for the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism.

Lafleur explains that he thought "putting everything under one roof might have enabled the state to better market and coordinate the exhibits among our museums." He adds that having a single office in charge of museums could have led to better operating standards among them.

He says the proposal was widely panned by museums which were under the secretary of state's purview at the time. Lafleur says the change in the state's fiscal fortunes has left all museums under the state's control scrambling for resources.

The Senate Education Committee meeting will begin after the Senate adjourns from its morning session which was scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. You can watch the committee meeting by clicking here.