Lafleur: Legislators maintained the status quo

It may be the last thing Sen. Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte, mentions when asked to talk about the recent legislative session, but a resolution he sponsored may be the most important of the session.
LaFleur’s bill approved by the Senate allows the senators to elect their leadership by secret ballot.
Traditionally, Louisiana governors push a candidate for Senate president. Senators who do not follow a governor’s candidate may face retribution.
“I think that it helps balance the influence the governor has over the legislative branch,” LaFleur said of the resolution.
Otherwise, LaFleur said legislators accomplished little except to keep the ship of state afloat.
“We probably avoided the hard decisions .. until we have a new governor and a new direction,” he said.
“We were kind of hog-tied with the parameters he (Gov. Bobby Jindal) gave us where it would have to be revenue neutral,” he said.
“We were able to do basic things that people wanted done,” he said.
Legislators did avoid devastating cuts to two-year and four-year school and fully funded traditional public schools, he said.
“I think in that sense we did accomplish a lot, but did we go in and make some major reforms in what we do. No,” he said.
“That is why we anticipate having a huge deficit next year,” LaFleur said. “We didn’t make any structural changes or structural reforms.”
LaFleur blames Jindal for restricting legislators from major moves.
“I think everyone is looking forward to next year when we can go in and do some structural changes and structural reforms in how we do business,” he said.
“I think every gubernatorial candidate has already said and pledged that they intend to do that,” he said. “We never had that kind of commitment from Jindal, but we have it from all the candidates running now.”
LaFleur said a a constitutional convention is likely to allow flexibility with the state finances.
Any changes would have to be approved by voters, he said.
Legislators also approved a review of Common Core standards.
“I think the perception was that the standards were created by someone outside,” he said. “It wasn’t our own standards. We we basically following some national standard that didn’t include enough local voices from parents and local school boards and local teachers.”
On other issues, LaFleur said:
— The lack of revenue restricts what the state can do to improve roads.
— Changes to the Medicaid system are costing more. Legislators have asked for an accounting of the changes, but have not received it.
— LaFleur is in favor of expanding Medicaid coverage with federal money and a resolution was passed to clear the way for funding it in 2016.
— One of state government’s problems has been a governor who not been providing leadership, he said.
Gubernatorial candidates are discussing alternatives, he said.
“They are not worried about going back and looking in retrospect and saying we made some mistakes,” LaFleur said. “The current governor could never do that because he was running for office at the national level. He could never admit to any mistakes. That’s unfortunate because we suffer as the result of that.”