Louisiana
Questions remain about new election laws that take effect this week • Louisiana Illuminator
A slate of new Louisiana election laws set to take effect Thursday could disenfranchise voters and be used to levy unfounded allegations of fraud, voter advocacy groups say.
Earlier this year the state’s GOP-dominated Legislature passed several laws at the behest of new Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landry, who is also a Republican. Bill authorities invoked the Republican catch phrase “strengthening election integrity,” though authorities have never found evidence of widespread voter fraud in Louisiana or elsewhere in the United States.
The laws have opened the door for state officials to enact stricter guidelines for third-party groups to hold voter registration drives and stricter requirements for voters to prove citizenship. They also could make it easier for authorities to criminalize certain acts as voter fraud. But there are also some unknowns about the new laws that have advocates anxious with only about three months left before the November elections.
This November, Louisiana voters will get to decide on the presidential election, six congressional seats, a state Supreme Court judgeship, and a constitutional amendment related to the use of energy revenues.
Among the new election laws taking effect is House Bill 506, sponsored by Rep. Polly Thomas, R-Metairie. It will require any non-governmental groups to first sign up with the Louisiana Secretary of State before holding any voter registration drives.
Former mayor of New Orleans and current Urban League President Marc Morial said he thinks most of Landry’s legislative agenda will only make it harder to vote or decrease voter turnout.
“I think you should have penalties for people who commit fraud … [but] it shouldn’t be hard to register people to vote,” Morial said in a phone interview. “ … It sounds like some kind of Soviet-era control.”
While many voter advocacy groups have criticized Thomas’ bill as a voter suppression tactic, Landry cited an incident of lost registration forms as the impetus for the legislation while testifying at a March 21 House and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing.
During last year’s election, an organization failed to turn in several dozen voter registration forms that high school students had filled out. The students later showed up to vote and were told they had never been registered. Landry’s office investigated the issue and learned what happened. A volunteer from the group that held the registration drive had left the forms in the trunk of someone’s car and forgot to turn them in, she said.
Landry said Thomas’ bill will allow election officials to keep track of voter registration drives and contact volunteers to make sure they fill out forms correctly and turn them in.
However, several unanswered questions remain about what all will be required of the groups: What information will be required from them? Will they be required to sign up with the Secretary of State in person? How long will their registration be valid? Does every member of a group need to register?
“That’s actually the biggest problem,” Peter Robins-Brown, executive director of Louisiana Progress, said. “It’s that a lot of those laws were very vague … They should have had those answers laid out before they introduced the bill.”
Landry’s spokesman Joel Watson said the office will be releasing guidance that should answer many of those questions before the law takes effect Thursday.
Louisiana legislation targets mail-in absentee voting as it gains in popularity
“This law is not about individuals or groups receiving clearance from our office or the [registrars of voters] but registering their drive so that they can be contacted when needed,” Watson said.
The Urban League held its national conference in New Orleans last week and included courses on voter registration training. The organization publishes state-specific guides on voter registration laws and could have to make changes to Louisiana’s guide after Thursday.
Robins-Brown said he is also concerned about what the penalties might be for those who violate the law by failing to register. He said he is most concerned for small neighborhood associations and individuals involved in loosely organized civic engagement activities that include helping their neighbors get registered to vote.
“You just can’t expect the average person to know all of these rules or at least know them in detail,” Robins-Brown said. “At what point does my attempt to register my neighbors go from an act of civic engagement to a violation or a crime of voter fraud?”
Thomas’ bill did not establish criminal penalties, though lawmakers passed a separate measure that does criminalize other acts.
Senate Bill 420, sponsored by Sen. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, expands the state crime of election fraud with several new provisions to encompass a wider variety of acts. The crime carries a penalty of up to two years in prison.
Most of the new provisions align with typical voter fraud crimes such as forging a ballot or attempting to vote more than once. Others, however, are more vague, including a provision that apparently makes it a crime to forge, alter, take or destroy “election supplies.”
Another provision makes it a crime to possess an official ballot in violation of any provision of the Louisiana Election Code.
House Bill 476, sponsored by Rep. Josh Carlson, R-Lafayette, prohibits a person from mailing more than one absentee ballot for a voter who isn’t an immediate family member. Similarly, Senate Bill 218, sponsored by Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, prohibits the same act with regard to mailing the application form for an absentee ballot for more than one voter who isn’t an immediate family member. It also makes it a crime to give an absentee ballot application form to two or more people who are not immediate family members.
Landry, while testifying in support of Kleinpeter’s bill in March, said allowing unknown individuals to collect unlimited numbers of ballot applications would give them access to the voter’s name and address and therefore allow them to “harass and intimidate voters” into voting a certain way.
The secretary of state’s office has cited three incidents as evidence of election fraud, though none revealed evidence of widespread wrongdoing among voters. Two of the incidents involved a vote-buying scheme by politicians from the same small town — Amite City.
The third occurred in a 2018 local election in Acadia Parish, where a woman assisting two elderly voters allegedly failed to mark their absentee ballots as directed. The Crowley woman was convicted on a single misdemeanor charge and received two years probation. Authorities never disclosed how she marked the ballots.
None of the incidents affected the outcome of the respective elections.
Louisiana
Local business addresses food insecurity in Northeast Louisiana
MONROE, La. (KNOE) — The Food Bank of Northeast Louisiana has seen an increase in the number of people in need.
The food bank serves 12 parishes across the region and helps around 25,000 people each month. Officials with the food bank say they have seen an increase in the number of people in need since 2023, especially around the holiday season.
A local business, DSLD Homes is hosting “Take A Bite Out of Hunger” food drive, to help meet the needs of people in NELA during the holiday season.
“Everyone doesn’t have a family or friends to rely on when they are in need so we decided to go the extra mile by hosting this food drive. We are asking for community members to donate items like nonperishables and canned goods, so that no one goes without a meal this Thanksgiving season,“ says DSLD Homes representative Tyler Sandifer.
Donations can be dropped off at the Somerset Park model home at 508 Southern Grv Rd. in Sterlington or at the Traditions model home at 1439 W Martin Luther King Jr Ave. in Grambling.
The food drive ends on Nov. 22.
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Louisiana
Louisiana lawmakers return to Capitol for special session focused on tax reform
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana lawmakers returned to the state Capitol on Wednesday for their third special legislative session of the year, this time with a focus on tax reform.
As the state faces an estimated budget hole of more than $700 million next year, largely due to the expiration of a temporary .45% sales tax and a tax on business utilities, Gov. Jeff Landry is urging the GOP-dominated Legislature to overhaul the state’s tax structure. His reforms call for retaining this sales tax and allowing the business utilities tax to expire. But he is pushing for far more sweeping constitutional amendments that would require voter support in statewide elections scheduled for March.
Among the governor’s proposals is the flattening of income and corporate tax rates. To offset those revenue losses, Landry is proposing extending the sales tax to other services and digital goods, such as Netflix, lobbying, dog grooming and car washes.
Landry also seeks to merge two state trust funds holding nearly $3.8 billion dollars combined. Less money would be channeled to the state’s savings account under this proposal and more money from corporate tax and mineral revenue would be at the disposal of lawmakers to spend, according to an analysis from the Public Affairs Research Council, a nonpartisan Louisiana think tank.
Additionally, there are plans to remove dozens of tax breaks, including for the state’s film industry and for rehabilitating historic structures. Supporters believe the changes to corporate and income taxes will attract businesses and keep the state competitive with its neighbors as Louisiana battles outward migration.
Currently, there are 223 sales tax exemptions, Richard Nelson, Secretary of the Department of Revenue, said.
“I would say the tax code is one of the major drivers of why Louisiana fails to get ahead,” Nelson said at an Aug. 30 panel on the tax reforms.
Democrat Minority Leader Matthew Willard said at the same panel that he was not convinced that flattening individual income tax would improve the state’s economic outlook and feared it would increase the state’s deficit.
According to information from the state’s Department of Revenue, Louisiana residents currently pay a 4.25% tax rate on income $50,000 and above, 3.5% on income between $12,500 and $50,000, and 1.85% on income $12,500 and below. Landry’s proposal would eliminate income tax for those making up to $12,500 and would set a flat income tax rate of 3% of those earning above $12,500.
There are nine states that do not levy an individual income tax. Among those are the nearby states of Florida, Tennessee and Texas.
The vast majority of Louisianians will see significant tax cuts following the proposed changes to state income and sales taxes, according to an analysis conducted by the state legislator’s longtime former chief economist and funded by a coalition of nonpartisan public policy groups. A little over 1 million households would see their state-level taxes reduced by 20%, the study found.
The reform package would eliminate the corporate franchise tax and ultimately reduce taxes on corporate income tax to a flat rate of 3.5%. Currently, the state applies a 7.5% tax rate to corporate profits exceeding $150,000, a 5.5% rate to profits between $50,000 and $150,000, and a 3.5% rate to profits below $50,000.
Skeptics have expressed concern that the proposed reforms would grant overly generous tax cuts to corporations.
“It’s small business subsidizing big business, is basically what it is, and that’s not right,” said State Senator W. Jay Luneau, a Democrat, at an Oct. 24 Senate hearing.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle also stressed that they want to ensure local parish governments do not lose revenue they rely on as a result of the tax overhaul. The proposed changes would incentivize local governments to eliminate property taxes on business inventory and end local taxes on prescription drugs and incentives.
Nelson, the Department of Revenue secretary, said the proposed change would prevent citizens from being taxed for medical needs and instead shift their taxes to consumer services such as landscaping.
“My neighbors are going to crucify me” in response to proposed taxes on lawn-mowing services, said Republican Senator Stewart Cathey, Jr.
Other lawmakers noted there will likely be stiff opposition from numerous special interest groups set to lose their longstanding tax breaks. And they have questioned whether a special session in the aftermath of the national election would be enough time for lawmakers to fully process and debate massive policy changes.
Daniel Erspamer, CEO of the Pelican Institute, a conservative think tank, said the need to simplify the state’s tax code has been a long time in coming and applauded the attempt to confront the issue.
“I’m pleased that the governor really said, you know, let’s put our money where our mouth is and get this thing done,” Erspamer said. “We’ll see how the Legislature feels about that.”
While Landry has framed the session as tax-focused, his session call proclamation had 23 items listed — including teacher pay and a possible reworking of the state court system.
The special session will begin at 3 p.m. Nov. 6. Landry is scheduled to speak to the Legislature on the opening day. The legislative gathering must conclude no later than 6 p.m. on Nov. 25.
Louisiana
Louisiana voters want federal money from offshore wind to go toward coastal restoration
Louisiana voters approved an amendment asking them if revenues from offshore alternative energy should go towards coastal restoration and protection.
Federal money from offshore oil and gas production already goes into Louisiana’s Coastal Restoration and Protection Fund. “We’ve received hundreds of millions of dollars over the years because of that. What this amendment would do is basically the same,” Barry Erwin, president and CEO of Council for a Better Louisiana, told Louisiana Considered.
Despite these oil and gas revenues flowing into the fund, the state doesn’t have enough money to fund its Coastal Master Plan. Amendment 1 sets up the state to receive slightly more.
The yes vote on the amendment means federal money from the emerging offshore alternative energy industry, which is primarily wind, will go into that same fund for the coast. A no vote would have put the money into the state’s general fund, which is spent how the legislature chooses.
There are no completed wind projects off of Louisiana’s Gulf coast yet. Two were granted leases by the state last December and are underway. The Danish firm Vestas – which operates under the name Cajun Wind in Louisiana – was granted nearly 60,000 acres off of Cameron Parish. Diamond Wind, which is owned by the Japanese company Mitsubishi, was granted a little over 6,000 acres of the coast of Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes.
The federal government doesn’t share offshore alternative energy revenues with states, but some in Louisiana’s congressional delegation have been pushing for it. Sen. Bill Cassidy co-sponsored the Reinvesting in Shoreline Economies & Ecosystems (RISEE) Act and Rep. Steve Scalise sponsored the Budgeting for Renewable Electrical Energy Zone Earnings Act (BREEZE Act), both of which would bring revenues from offshore wind to states.
But Erwin said even if revenues start coming in, it won’t be very much money. Estimates put the amount at about 10 percent of what Louisiana gets from oil and gas, which is about $160 million a year. “We’re gonna be losing a lot of the coastal money that we’re getting right now when the BP oil payments are kind of finalized in a few years,” he said. “So I think the proponents feel like every dollar that we can still muster towards coastal protection.”
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