From Executive Director Renee Amar
Image

Louisiana Motor Transport Association

www.lmta.lawww.lmta.foundation

lmta@lmta.la

(225) 928-5682

CAPITOL CORNER

LMTA's Weekly Legislative Overview with Executive Director Renee Amar 

Week 4 of the session has wrapped up!

 

This week's discussion at the state capitol ranged from social issues to the state budget. The legislature completed their work on Thursday with the House floor passing the state’s roughly $46 billion budget. Much of the discussion was over busting the spending cap which conservative Republicans in the House did not want to do, while Governor Edwards and some in the Senate did want to do. Ultimately, the House sent their approved budget to the Senate without busting the spending cap, so the drama will continue until early June. 

 

For truckers, as noted in an email earlier this week, we had a win with the passage of SB 196 by Sen Peacock on the Senate floor! This is the bill that would create the Litigation Financing Disclosure and Security Protection Act which would add much-needed transparency to our legal system. Litigation financing is when a third party invests in a lawsuit in exchange for a share of the profit. It is a practice that inserts another party into a lawsuit, ultimately increasing the case's complexity and prolonging the litigation.

 

Next stop for SB 196 is the house committee. We will let you know as soon as it gets scheduled for a hearing.

 

Those voting with LMTA on SB 196 were:

- Mr. President

- Abraham

- Allain

- Bernard

- Cathey

- Cloud

- Connick

- Fesi

- Foil

- Henry

- Hensgens

- Hewitt

- Kleinpeter

- Lambert

- McMath

- Milligan

- Mills, F

- Mills, R

- Mizell

- Morris

- Peacock

- Pope

- Reese

- Stine

- Talbot

- White

- Womack

Those voting against LMTA on SB 196 were:

- Barrow

- Boudreaux

- Bouie

 

- Carter

- Duplessis

- Fields

- Harris

- Jackson

- Luneau

- Price

- Smith

- Tarver

On Monday, HB 594 by Rep Larvadain is up in the House Transportation Committee. This is the bill that would move mobile weight enforcement from the Louisiana State Police to the DOTD.

 

Two years ago, the scale houses were moved to DOTD and we have been fighting an uphill battle with excessive regulations from an agency that doesn’t understand truckers. LMTA will be in committee on Monday to testify against this bill. DOTD is not ready for prime time and does not need more authority over the trucking industry.

 

If you have a relationship or you are a constituent of one of the following, please take a moment to get in touch with them. You should be able to click on their name to get their contact information if you don’t have it.

 

House Transportation Committee members:

Thanks,

C.Renee Amar

Executive Director | LMTA & LMTA Foundation

Cell: (225) 287-0117

renee@lmta.la 


This email was sent on behalf of The Louisiana Motor Transport Association (LMTA) located at 4838 Bennington Avenue, Baton Rouge, LA 70880To unsubscribe click here. If you have questions or comments concerning this email contact Communications Director Allison Strahan at allison@lmta.la.