Jay Dardenne Scores This Year’s Legislative Session [VIDEO]
Louisiana's Commissioner of Administration Jay Daedenne talks with 101.7 / 710 KEEL's Robert J Wright and Erin McCarty about the legislative session, which wrapped up last evening in Baton Rouge.
Dardenne gives this year's session a high score ("10 out of 10") while discussing the completed state budget, the budget surplus, Governor John Bel Edwards plans regarding the $700 million in infrastructure money, plus the fate of a number of proposed bills.
From nola.com:
"Louisiana's election-year legislative session was ending Thursday, with lawmakers needing to complete their work on the state's budget, after giving teachers their first significant statewide pay raise in a decade and passing one of the nation's strictest abortion bans.
In the final hours of a 60-day session that must end by 6 p.m., lawmakers were putting the finishing touches on a $30 billion state operating budget for the financial year that begins July 1."
And a last minute push by lawmakers to pass a sports fantasy gaming bill, described by theadvocate.com:
"But then a question arose about whether (just passed) HB459 needed a two-thirds approval, or 26 votes. Three minutes of uncertainty passed before Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego, ruled that the bill needed only 20 votes.
For fantasy sports to become legal in Louisiana, the Legislature also had to approve Talbot’s HB600. Now the Senate had only two minutes to approve it. Martiny objected, and he talked long enough to prevent the Senate from voting on the bill before adjournment, in his final move as a state legislator.
The Legislature can try to approve fantasy sports next year only if the governor calls a special session."