A 14-3 vote in the House Transportation Committee has defeated a resolution aimed at reducing billboards in Louisiana. Kevin Barnhart has the story.
Cut 1 (30) “I’m Kevin Barnhart”
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Campaign numbers for the 2019 governor’s race have been updated. Jeff Palermo looks at what the candidates are reporting…
Cut 2 (30) “I’m Jeff Palermo.”
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Legislation has advanced to the House floor that seeks to lower auto insurance rates. Louisiana reportedly has the second-highest average auto insurance rates in the nation and River Ridge Representative Kirk Talbot says his bill would create a legal environment that would reduce the costs for insurance companies…
Talbot’s measure would lower the state’s threshold for requiring a civil trial to $5,000 from the current $50,000, take away the ability to sue an insurance company directly and extend the time limit to file a suit from one year to two…
Cut 4 (07) “…drive costs down”
The House Civil Law committee approved the legislation on a five to two vote. Shreveport Representative Sam Jenkins voted against it, because he believes insurance companies can do more on their own to lower rates…
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Lawmakers are seeking to bring back sales tax holidays. They were accidentally suspended for seven years when legislators crafted new tax laws last June. Monroe Representative Jay Morris’ measure would benefit consumers by reinstating a tax holiday for back to school shopping, hurricane preparedness and hunting supplies
The school supply sales tax weekend would occur in August, hurricane preparedness would be in May and the second amendment sales tax weekend would take place in September. Morris says businesses also like the sales tax holidays…
The House Ways and Means committee unanimously approved the sales tax holiday legislation. Haughton Representative Dodie Horton says it’s something the public wants…
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The Senate Ag Committee approved and expanded a bill that would require “truth in labeling” for food products like Almond “milk”, “riced” cauliflower, and “sugar” substitutes.
Ag Commissioner Mike Strain says it’s the government’s job to keep advertisers honest, and prevent misleading products from tricking customers.
It’s legislation brought by Delhi Senator Francis Thompson who says while most of these “fake” products are not made in the Bayou State, they shouldn’t be outlawed, just forced to be upfront about what’s in the package.
Louisiana rice industry representative Scott Franklin says the “substitute” industry is well aware that they are misleading the public, and they’d have trouble selling their product if it was labeled properly. He says this legislation would fight back against these predatory out of state companies.
A representative of Silk soy milk says further regulations are unnecessary and people know what they are buying. No one was on hand to oppose the legislation at the committee meeting and the measure now heads to the Senate floor.
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The House Transportation committee slammed the breaks on a resolution pushed by Jonesboro Rep. Jack McFarland aimed at reducing the number of billboards on Louisiana roadways. The trucking industry backed the effort, because McFarland says ads for crash attorneys are impacting the cost of doing business for truckers.
McFarland also lists clutter and distraction as other reasons to reduce the number of billboards. The resolution called for a moratorium on new billboard construction, unless it was a digital billboard replacing other billboards.
Cut 13 (09) “…distraction from them.”
Shreveport Rep. Barbara Norton says billboards are not the biggest issue when it comes to blight on the roads.
Cut 14 (13) “…not doing that.”
Lamar Advertising owns a majority of the billboards in the state and CEO Sean Reilly says Louisiana has seen a net reduction of billboards in recent years.
Cut 15 (12) “…what it’s about.”
Reilly says the state has about 2% of the nation’s highways and 2% of the nation’s billboards. The measure was defeated on a 14-3 vote.