Republican Gov. Jeff Landry didn’t say much specifically about how he would get Louisiana to go where he wanted, but when he did, he didn’t mince words.
At the start of the 2026 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature, Landry delivered the annual State of the State speech that governors give. Much of it reflected upon past actions of the Legislature in the past year that he had supported which produced desirable results.
He lauded the state’s rapid rise in education rankings, which in part happened through the efforts outside the direct forces of Landry and legislators through the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education efforts and those of Superintendent Cade Brumley. He lightly emphasized that increased of the GATOR educational savings accounts at a higher level, as he has budgeted, would expand choice and accountability to keep the momentum going, but perhaps knowing this was a heavy lift he didn’t get into rebuttals to criticism of the request.
He did expand more on why Amendment #3 should pass in May elections, noting approval both would lock in a permanent pay raise for educators because it would reduce the unfunded accrued liabilities attached to educator pensions. Undoubtedly opponents will argue this approval would dismantle education trust funds, but using the money to defray pension costs is more cost effective in the long run.
Landry touted stout employment growth, wage growth, and private sector investment in the state, but singled out boosting the M.J. Foster Promise award funding to pay for technical and community college educations, stating this kind of funding was disproportionately smaller compared to workforce needs. He also noted that this growth enabled a fall of 100,000 in Medicaid rolls (and as the data are available through year’s end, it doesn’t include any impact from federal changes from last year which start this year.)
He lightly touched on the standstill budgets without gimmickry delivered in his first two years and proposed again, noting the better positioning saved the state tens of millions in lower debt dollars, and mentioned even greater efficiency savings that he had initiated. He skipped entirely his increased funding request for corrections and barely mentioned even more sought for business incentives. However, he pledged again to keep Louisiana on the road towards elimination of income taxes, which he said would come if budget and spending discipline he had championed remained.
Although a number of insurance measures have been introduced, both he and legislative leaders have said this hot item from last session would cool considerably as the previous changes are digested, at least for this session. Landry broadly and anecdotally reviewed those past actions and noted that rates have started to fall, attributing success to data winning out over emotion.
He did stump hard for two transportation-related efforts, one widely-popular, one obscure. He said he would see to the end of vehicle inspection stickers, but through replacing these with another kind of less-expensive sticker that would use a QR code to give vehicle information, which will be a big winner if only done once during a vehicle ownership. Landry in addition asked to establish a state infrastructure bank to hasten roads projects.
He saved his harshest comments for the end, calling for judicial reforms to increase judges’ accountability. In particular, he zeroed in on Orleans Parish which gets special treatment under state law with the state picking up its expenses. Using the example of a botched court oversight instance, Landry called for reform and specifically in Orleans.
More a victory lap than detailed agenda-setting, Landry’s presentation did lay out several priorities but basically avoided haranguing legislators over items about which he knew he might face an uphill battle, as well omitting remarks about a steadily increasing controversy outside the chamber leadership that questions his and leaders’ support of carbon capture and sequestration. However, overall, the broad strokes move the state in the right direction, if the details end up being adequate to pull these off.
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