One of the bills in the legislature getting the most attention is the one that would give the insurance commissioner the authority to reject rates he or she deems to be excessive, regardless of market conditions. It has passed in the full House and is now awaiting debate in a Senate committee. Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple opposes it, saying he has already rejected insurance rates that he has deemed to be too high – several times, in fact.
A bill that would make kratom illegal in Louisiana moves to the House. The Senate passed S-B 154 on a vote of 26-to-11, split right down party lines. The author, West Monroe Republican Jay Morris, says kratom – sometimes known as “gas station heroin” – has already been banned in several places.
Voters are one step closer to deciding whether to increase the homestead exemption. The House Ways and Means Committee Approved House Bill 271, which would place a constitutional amendment on the ballot for voters to decide whether to increase the homestead exemption from 75-hundred dollars to 12-thousand-500 dollars in assessed value. The vote was 9-to-5. The bill’s author, New Orleans Democrat Matthew Willard, says since the homestead exemption has not increased since 1980, people are getting priced out of their homes.
Cut 13 (10) “…it’s not affordable.”
Jim Patterson with the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry spoke out against Willard’s bill. He says if you increase the homestead exemption to lower property taxes, the government will need to make up that tax revenue somehow.