BATON ROUGE, La (AP) - Louisiana lawmakers on Tuesday completed a 30-day special session called in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, after awarding millions of dollars in tax breaks to businesses and finishing the state’s multibillion-dollar budget a day before it must take effect.
The $34 billion spending plan approved unanimously by the House and Senate - for the financial year that starts Wednesday - uses federal virus aid to stop deep cuts but sets Louisiana up for future financial problems if state tax collections don’t rebound from the virus outbreak.
Gov. John Bel Edwards called the budget a “workable” proposal that protects programs and services.
Also approved in the final hours, Republican lawmakers brokered a final agreement with the Democratic governor on the business lobby’s top priority, reworking civil litigation rules to lessen the damage claims that can be awarded in car accident lawsuits. And they agreed to shield K-12 schools and colleges from most civil lawsuits if a student or teacher contracts the COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus.
The special session began June 1, immediately after lawmakers adjourned a regular session shortened by the coronavirus outbreak. The majority-Republican House and Senate crafted the agenda for the special session themselves, only the second time in Louisiana history that lawmakers called themselves into session, rather than letting a governor dictate the plans.
GOP lawmakers said the state needed to help small businesses get on their feet after Edwards ordered closures and restrictions to respond to the coronavirus. The Legislature set aside up to $300 million in federal aid for small business grants in the regular session and agreed to millions of dollars in business tax cuts in the special session.
The session agenda - crafted in heavy consultation with business lobbying groups - provoked criticism from Democrats, who said it was too heavy on tax break expansions that business organizations have sought for years and had too little focus on struggling workers and families.
“We’re helping our people by giving them the ability to provide for their family, by giving them a job and an opportunity to pay the rent and to pay their light bills and to take care of their kids,” said Senate Republican leader Sharon Hewitt, of Slidell. “Without a little bit of help, these businesses are going to shut down.”
Democrats successfully persuaded their Republican colleagues to use $50 million in federal COVID-19 aid to give thousands of workers - such as grocery store employees, bus drivers and health care workers - who stayed on the job in the early days of the pandemic a one-time $250 “hazard payment.” To be eligible, employees can earn no more than $50,000 a year.
“We got a win with this thank-you to front-line workers, but by and large we didn’t really come here and do real work for folks that have been impacted,” said Rep. Ted James, a Baton Rouge Democrat hospitalized with COVID-19 earlier this year. “What we’re doing (with the tax breaks) is still setting ourselves up, I believe, for uncertainty with trying to craft a budget next year.”
The budget that won final passage Tuesday largely follows an approach advised by Edwards to use nearly $800 million in federal virus aid provided by Congress to avoid steep reductions.
But nearly $60 million planned for state worker pay raises was stripped from agencies, a move Edwards opposed as unnecessary. The dollars would be set aside, and lawmakers would decide later in the year if they want to provide the money for raises, depending on state tax collections.
Beyond the financial debates, the death of George Floyd and the national protests over police use of force spilled into the House and Senate, prompting tense discussions.
Black lawmakers successfully created a task force to study police training, misconduct and racial bias recognition in Louisiana. But passage came only after white House lawmakers removed language that mentioned Floyd’s death and that described Black men as more likely to be killed by police than white men. The task force starts work in July and must report its findings to the Legislature by Feb. 1.
House Republicans derailed a separate bill that would have stripped the wide-ranging immunity available to law enforcement officers as a defense against damage claims for wrongful death or injury.
Winning final passage Tuesday were changes to the civil justice system sought by business organizations. Supporters claim the effort will lower insurance rates by making litigation less lucrative, while opponents call it a giveaway to business that will damage injured people’s ability to receive adequate compensation.
Edwards vetoed such a bill from the regular session, but reached terms on a new version with GOP lawmakers on the final day of session. The governor signaled an end to the heated fight, saying: “I do intend to sign the bill.”
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