from theInd
Mudbug Madness in the Legislature
If crawfish farmers and crustacean aficionados are looking for a banner-bearer, they need look no further than rookie Rep. Fred H. Mills Jr., a Democrat from Parks. The spunky Cajun is sponsoring what promises to be two of the most controversial mudbug-related bills during the upcoming regular session that opens March 31.
For an appetizer, Mills is serving up House Bill 501, which would transfer the management and regulation of wild-caught crawfish from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to the Department of Agriculture and Forestry. The latter already oversees pond operations and spearheaded an international trade suit during the 1990s, which has long left many in the industry wondering why the ag folks don’t oversee the whole shebang.
Mills’ main course, however, can be found in House Bill 266, which would force restaurants to notify their customers if the crawfish they’re serving is from a foreign country. If the law passes, all eateries — from Commander’s Palace to the mom-and-pop shop down the street — would have to update their menus.
Shrimpers tried the same trick a few years ago but were aggressively shot down by the influential Louisiana Restaurant Association. Mills should expect more of the same, especially since his bill calls for fines of up to $500 or jail time of 90 days for first-time offenders.
from the dailykingfish
LA-05: Rep. Alexander (R) always on the periphery of GOP scandals …
One of Capitol Hill’s newspapers, Roll Call, (subscription required), reminds us that Rep. Rodney Alexander is either the unluckiest man in the Republican Party these days or he is one of the worst judges of character EVER.
Let’s recap all the scandals he’s been on the periphery of …
In 2006, one of his staffers, Theresa Mares was caught sending love letters to convicted killer Scott Peterson on Congressional stationary! No need to worry, as Mr. Alexander fired Ms. Mares.
His former Chief of Staff, Royal Alexander (no relation), was fingered in a sexual harassment suit in late 2006 by a former staffer in Rep. Alexander’s office. Royal was later found to engage in fundraising tactics that raised eyebrows all over Louisiana in his failed quest for the Office of Attorney General that PCD documented oh, so well.
Rep. Alexander was also caught in the middle of the Mark Foley scandal when the page who broke the scandal was from his district. It came out that he and Royal worked with the House Republican leadership to bury the story prior to the 2006 elections.
Now the latest scandal that Rodney Alexander is caught on the periphery is that of Chris Ward, the Treasurer of the National Republican Congressional Committee, who was caught stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Republican Party. The connection?
Ward was also Alexander’s campaign treasurer.
Mayor Ray in the Spotlight…again
from the Times-pic
Nagin defends Home Depot deal to install counters
Nothing unethical done, he says
Mayor Ray Nagin told reporters Tuesday that he and his family have done nothing wrong in landing a deal to install granite countertops for four local Home Depot stores as the giant retailer was negotiating a tax break and other concessions from the city for a planned new store in Central City.
In a radio interview, Nagin said a Sunday Times-Picayune article describing the arrangement was “deceptively written to suggest that there was something unethical being done.”
Before the article appeared, the mayor declined on multiple occasions to comment on his role in Stone Age LLC, a company he and his sons Jeremy, 23, and Jarin, 21, formed in 2005. On Tuesday, he described himself as the company’s “financier” but otherwise shed little light on his involvement in the firm or its dealings with Home Depot.
Dane Ciolino, a Loyola Law School professor who specializes in ethics questions, said Nagin might have violated state ethics laws that bar city officials from being paid by entities that have or seek “business or financial relationships” with the city. Home Depot’s efforts to purchase a group of streets from the city would meet that definition, Ciolino said.
Ciolino said the prohibition would be triggered only if Nagin owns a share of Stone Age totaling 25 percent or more.
Nagin on Tuesday declined to specify his stake in the firm.
“My sons own the majority of the company, I basically — you know, it’s my sons’ — so I’m pretty much the financier for the company,” Nagin said.
In response to another question, he replied: “I own less than a majority of the company. My wife and I own a percentage of the company.”
Asked the size of the percentage, Nagin said, “I’m not getting into that.”
State records list Nagin and his two sons as the company’s three members. The law does not require ownership shares to be divulged.
Nagin also was asked Tuesday about his appearance, listed on his 2007 planner, at a meeting with Home Depot officials at Stone Age’s offices in February 2007. Stone Age landed the Home Depot installation deal two months later.
“That meeting, I think even the Home Depot people may have requested me to come there just to talk generally about what my sons were thinking about,” Nagin said Tuesday. “And they just wanted to meet me, really. There was nothing to it, probably a half-hour meeting, and then we moved on.”
Nagin characterized the newspaper report as part of larger pattern of stories that target him unfairly.
“It’s unfortunate that we have to continue to get to this point where minor things are being blown out of proportion,” he said. “My sons have followed every rule. I told them going into the business that they couldn’t do any city contracts or anything close to a city contract, and the store in question is not one of the stores they’re doing business with. So, you know, it’s just typical, unfortunately, of what I have to go through.”
from the Times-pic
Legislators try to restrict smoking
One bill would raise tobacco age to 21
BATON ROUGE — A rookie lawmaker from New Orleans has filed legislation designed to keep cigarettes and other tobacco products out of the hands of anyone younger than 21.
Rep. Walker Hines, D-New Orleans, has filed House Bill 240 that would raise the legal smoking age from 18 to 21. Hines, at 24 the youngest member of the Legislature, said he wants to “reduce smoking in social, settings” especially among teens and young adults.
He said three states have already raised the age for buying tobacco to 21.
State law now says that it is unlawful for retailers and manufacturers to sell or distribute tobacco products to anyone younger than 18. Hines’ bill raises that to 21. The bill also would prohibit anyone under 21 from buying or possessing cigarettes or other tobacco products.
The bill did not spell out penalties for the offense.
“If someone does not start smoking by age 21, that person probably will not smoke,” he said.
Hines’ bill also requires retailers to post signs in “not less than 30-point type reading “Louisiana law prohibits the sale of tobacco products to persons under age 21.” Tobacco vending machines must have a similar sign “in not less than 22-point type” stating the warning.
On another smoking-related issue, Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Livonia, has filed Senate Bill 185 closing an exception in the law banning smoking in public places.
Marionneaux’s bill would ban smoking in any restaurant or bar “if food is served at any time . . . while such bar is open to the public.” State law now prohibits smoking in restaurants, but allows it in bars that serve food. The bill would narrow that exception to allow smoking only if the bars has no food service.
Several years ago, lawmakers passed a ban on smoking in most public places, including hospitals, office buildings, restaurants and state and local public facilities. Marionneaux’s bill is expected to draw the opposition of tobacco and liquor lobbyists.
If it passes, it would leave bars that serve just drinks and casinos, including gambling riverboats, as the last major indoor facilities where smoking would be allowed.
On a related matter, Rep. Dee Richard, I-Thibodaux, has filed House Bill 466 banning smoking in public areas of nursing homes.
He said some common areas of nursing homes allow smoking but the practice is annoying and should be banned. Richard said his bill would still allow smoking in a nursing home resident’s room because “that is their own space.”
from the Times-pic
48 constitutional bills offered
Part of 1,780 filed for March 31 session
….All others bills had to be filed by 5 p.m. A total of 1,106 bill were filed by House members, and 674 were filed by senators. Once the session starts, lawmakers can file no more than five additional bills through the final deadline of April 22.
Jim Brandt, president of the Public Affairs Research Council, a non-partisan government watchdog group, said the filings for this session are a mix of perennials — like raising the limit on the value of homes that can qualify for a property tax exemption from $75,000 to $150,000 — and newcomers, including three by different lawmakers authorizing state surplus money to be rebated to taxpayers.
“That (topic) will get a lot of attention and discussion,” Brandt said. “That may be a headline issue. People can easily relate to that when the state has a $1 billion surplus.”
Brandt said he was surprised that just 48 proposed changes to the state constitution were filed by a Legislature that took office with many new faces Jan. 14.
Surplus rebates proposed
Several lawmakers at the recently ended fiscal session complained they wanted to return some of the $1 billion surplus to taxpayers, but could not because the state Constitution allows just five ways to spend a surplus and rebating tax dollars is not one of them.
The five ways nonrecurring money — like a surplus can be spent — include: retiring state debt, paying down the projected shortfall in the state retirement systems, capital construction projects, depositing it in a “rainy-day” fund, spending it on coastal restoration projects and financing highway construction for which matching federal dollars are available.
Rep. Rick Nowlin, R-Natchitoches, filed House Bill 834 that would add a sixth way to spend nonrecurring dollars: giving taxpayers a refund, rebate or tax credit. Sen. Mike Walsworth, R-West Monroe, filed Senate Bill 207 and Sen. Nick Gautreaux, D-Abbeville, filed Senate Bill 328 that would do the same thing.
“I’d like to have the opportunity to rebate money back to the people who paid the taxes,” Nowlin said. “At the last session, we didn’t have that option. . . . This would not mandate we spend it, but it gives us an option” to spend all or part of a surplus on rebates to taxpayers.
….In another government change, Sen. Edwin Murray, D-New Orleans, filed Senate Bill 324 that would give the attorney general’s office the authority to institute and prosecute cases of public corruption. The constitution limits the attorney general to criminal jurisdiction when a district attorney asks the attorney general to take over a case.
….On a property tax issue, Rep. Billy Chandler, D-Dry Prong, filed House Bill 381 that would double, from $75,000 to $150,000, the amount of a home’s value that can remain off the property tax rolls. The measure also calls for an annual increase in the tax break to keep up with inflation. Sen. John Alario, D-Westwego, has two similar bills, Senate Bills 19 and 200.
CenLamar 