La. Officials Urging January Special Session to Tackle Homeowners Issues

Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s top legislative allies said a special session the governor proposes for December should be pushed back a month to avoid conflicts with the holidays and to better analyze the state’s financial picture.

House Speaker Joe Salter and Senate President Donald Hines said Tuesday that there is growing sentiment among colleagues to postpone a December session until early 2007.

“It would be in everybody’s best interest to wait until January,” said Hines, D-Bunkie.

Blanco’s spokeswoman said the governor isn’t wedded to a December special session, and Blanco Chief of Staff Jimmy Clarke said he will meet with key lawmakers “to solicit their input on when to have the special (session), what should be in it.”

The governor plans the special session to deal with ways to shore up the finances of the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-run homeowners insurer of last resort that has sold $1 billion in bonds to pay off claims from last year’s hurricanes. Blanco wants to use some of an estimated $827 million surplus from last year to pay off some of Citizens’ debt.

She also said the special session could involve a proposal to use some surplus dollars for infrastructure improvements to entice major manufacturing firms to the state. One plant, a German steel mill, is expected to let the state know by the end of the month or in early December if it will build a plant in St. James Parish.

But the surplus dollars can’t be used until they are formally recognized by a revenue estimating panel, scheduled to meet in December.

Sen. Tom Schedler, R-Mandeville, chairman of the GOP delegation in the Senate and one of the chief backers of an unsuccessful attempt to get lawmakers to call themselves into a November special session, said Blanco proposed the December session to deflate Republican lawmakers’ initiative.

Schedler said since the drive to get a session in November died, and a December session could fall near the holidays, then waiting until January shouldn’t cause any problems.

“A matter of three or four weeks doesn’t make any difference at all,” he said.