Lawmakers turn up tort reform heat on Landry

In perhaps the only major rift that has developed between legislative Republicans and GOP Gov. Jeff Landry in their first year in this term of office, party lawmakers have turned up the heat on Landry over tort reform that influences vehicle insurance rates.

Backed by a good deal of trial lawyer money, Landry has appeared lukewarm on the issue of reform away from a legal structure weighed in favor of plaintiffs and the legal community that backs them. His most defiant move came in vetoing HB 423 by Republican state Rep. Mike Melerine this past session. That bill would have limited payouts by defendants to the actual amount of costs, plus up to 30 percent of the difference between the amount billed and the amount paid to plaintiff’s medical providers calculated from actual billing for insurance premiums and attorney fees, unless the defendant proves it to be unreasonable. Present law authorizes a flat 40 percent.

That bill actually represented a compromise. GOP state Sen. Alan Seabaugh had one which wasn’t heard that did away with paying out any difference at all, something neighboring Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas do, which is termed the collateral source rule. In his veto message of HB 423, Landry defended its presence on what he called its fairness in reimbursing foresight and advocacy, although the note didn’t address whether the current law created a fair framework for determining that amount possibly improved by the bill.

Police HQ controversy eroding Arceneaux image

It’s taken a couple of years, but Shreveport Republican Mayor Tom Arceneaux finally has started encountering some drama that served as a hallmark of his predecessor that impedes his low margin for error in reelection.

Even before he took office and throughout his term, Democrat former Mayor Adrian Perkins embarked upon a string of controversies involving questionable deals, questionable personnel moves, personal behavior that conveyed a disinterest in the job, and neglect of pressing city needs in favor of quixotic policy pursuits. Often this meandering brought him to clashes with the City Council, even though his party held a majority on it throughout his term.

In part, the electorate’s counterreaction to Perkins’ accidental mayoral reign thrust Arceneaux into the job, a white Republican in a majority black city, most of whom register as and vote for Democrats. This has the city’s Democrats in power, all black, licking their chops for 2026 hoping to ride these voter demographics to make Arceneaux a one-term mayor, and from time to time the Council, now with a 5-2 black Democrat majority, has played these electoral politics to cast aspersions on Arceneaux’s governance.

BC oath violators' hypocrisy reaches new heights

The Bossier City Council Oathbreakers are a persistent bunch when it comes to thwarting citizen rule, but even that won’t pay off with their latest ploy.

The Oathbreakers – Republicans David Montgomery, Jeff Free, and Vince Maggio plus Democrat Bubba Williams and independent Jeff Darby – earned that sobriquet as they on multiple occasions violated their oaths of office by refusing to uphold the city charter’s mandate that they must forward to voters a charter amendment that creates lifetime retroactive three-term limits for city councilors and the mayor, as by a successful citizen petition. As this would disqualify all but Maggio from among them for reelection next year, they have fought tooth and nail to sabotage in any way the amendment, which came about when the registrar of voters duly certified the document in July,

It began when the petition began circulating again last year at this time, after the Oathbreakers initially had rendered another inoperative for a technicality in the courts. The strategy involved invoking a charter review commission a majority of its members they appointed, mostly political insiders and allies. Initially, it was supposed that it would take the wind out of the sails of the citizen petitioners.

Bold rate policy can determine LPSC winner

While it’s a foregone conclusion that a climate realist will join the Louisiana Public Service Commission in 2025, why not start with some wind behind the sails?

The realists are Republican state Sen. Jean-Paul Coussan and GOP former state Sen. Julie Quinn. Both have described themselves as advocates of an all-of-the-above, let-the-lowest-priced-reliable-energy-source-win model for rate determination. By contrast, political newcomer Democrat Nick Laborde takes a climate alarmist approach favoring renewable sources.

Disturbingly, he vouches for returning to a net metering framework that essentially has almost every ratepayer subsidize the lifestyle choice of a few as a method to increase the proportion of renewable energy in the produced portfolio. This would lead to much higher costs for consumers because then the utility forced to buy renewable power from a customer at retail has to build reliable redundancy into the system, such as adding a peak combined-cycle natural gas plant, and charge consumers for it (or, impossibly both physically and financially, building out battery capacity).

Bossier Jury asks victim taxpayers to thank it

The Bossier Parish Police Jury blinked as well, but did so as part of what appears to be a plan to boost its image while deflecting from the fact for years it overtaxed parish property owners.

Bossier Parish property owners were looking at some hefty tax increases this year. Republican Sheriff Julian Whittington as well as a fire district foisted some onto their constituent by refusing to roll back entirely tax rates as instigated in the Constitution. Every four years after reassessment, the total amount collected by a government on properties not improved and held by the same owners is not in the aggregate to change if assessments went higher unless a taxing authority by a supermajority (in the case of a single executive like the sheriff, by his decision) refuses to allow a roll back in tax rates to compensate, which then means it can boost tax rates from that level all the way up to the one authorized by law.

Even with a roll back, unless assessed and sale values have decreased, with the property improvements and higher uses that have occurred in the previous four years within their boundaries entities will see more money coming into their coffers than previously. The intent behind the automatic roll back unless overridden is to prevent the vast majority of property owners who don’t use their property in and of itself for income generation through its lease or rental from having to pay more on a long-term asset for which they receive at present no capital gain, if any.