A Louisiana House committee has challenged Gov. Bobby Jindal’s anti-tax stance, approving what amounts to a tax hike on Louisiana homeowners: a proposal to increase an existing fee added to insurance bills.
The fee increase would produce $1.25 million to fund LSU’s Fire and Emergency Training Institute, which trains firefighters statewide but is facing big budget cuts. Speaking to a roomful of firefighters who supported the plan, Rep. Jonathan Perry laid out an unpleasant scenario in which the bill gets through the Legislature but the funding never happens because of a veto.
“I just want you to understand the politics of this: We’ll vote for this, we’ll get blasted, and y’all won’t even get” the money if the governor vetoes the bill, said Perry, R-Abbeville.
The panel voted 9-6 to send the bill to the full House, over the objections of committee chairman Rep. Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge, who repeatedly cautioned lawmakers against approving a pro-tax bill with a possible veto looming.
Rep. Avon Honey took another view: he complained that lawmakers “belabored the situation for better than 45 minutes,” then spent more time wondering whether Jindal would veto it.
“Let it get to his desk, let him veto it,” said Honey, D-Baton Rouge.
A Jindal spokesman was noncommittal when asked about the governor’s stance on the measure.
“There were several amendments added to the original bill which change the impact, so we’re going to continue to review the legislation,” spokesman Kyle Plotkin said.
The fire training institute is partly funded by a fee – or “assessment” – paid by homeowners with their insurance bills. The current assessment is 1/2 of 1 percent of the premium paid by homeowners.
Jeff Gleason, the director, said the institute currently gets $1.5 million from the fee, plus another $1 million from the state’s general fund. Gleason said LSU has cut the $1 million from his budget, which could cripple the institute’s ability to train the state’s professional and volunteer firefighters.
Rep. Mickey Guillory’s bill was intended to make up for the loss of funding. His original bill would have doubled the size of the fee, from one-quarter of 1 percent to one-half of 1 percent of an insurance premium. The committee amended the measure to reduce the increase, to three-eighths of 1 percent.
The firefighters’ training can help keep insurance rates down statewide, so lawmakers labored over their choice: allow the institute’s funding to disappear, possibly causing insurance rate hikes; or approve an increase to insurance rates, thereby keeping the training institute at full strength after deep cuts in its funding by LSU.
Voting for the amended measure were Honey and Reps. Taylor Barras, D-New Iberia; Roy Burrell, D-Shreveport; Guillory, D-Eunice; Cameron Henry, R-Metairie; Girod Jackson, D-Harvey; Rickey Nowlin, R-Natchitoches; Jerome Richard, I-Thibodaux; and Harold Ritchie, D-Bogalusa.
Voting against it were Greene, Perry and Reps. Frank Hoffmann, R-West Monroe; Joel Robideaux, I-Lafayette; Jane Smith, R-Bossier City; and Ricky Templet, R-Gretna.
On the Net: House Bill 166 can be viewed at http://legis.state.la.us/
Topics Legislation Louisiana Homeowners Training Development
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
Supreme Court Overturns Chevron Rule in Blow to Regulators 
US Roof Maintenance Lags: Hanover 
US Home Insurance Still Priced Too Low for Climate Risk, Says Swiss Re Chair 
Ryan Specialty Announces Succession Plan: Pat Ryan to Exec Chair, Turner to Be CEO 
