Jindal calls session a victory for state

• By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON AND WILL SENTELL
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Mar 15, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 03.15.08

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The Louisiana Legislature approved 12 bills in six days, giving Gov. Bobby Jindal everything he wanted, then went home Friday.

“All in all, it was a great session,” Jindal said at a news conference after the Legislature adjourned the second special session two weeks early.

“They’ve shown: We welcome business investment. We welcome the growth. We welcome jobs for our people,” Jindal said of the lawmakers. “The country’s watching us. We hope they like what they see. We know they’ll like what they see.”

Legislators passed the measures that would allow Jindal to spend $1.1 billion in surplus monies, give about $503 million in tax breaks during the next five years to businesses and parents of schoolchildren, and redirect some sales taxes and license fees into a permanent road construction fund.

House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Terrytown, noted that everything on the governor’s agenda passed the Legislature and that the measures will touch every parish in the state.

The session could have lasted until March 29. It was the second special session since Jindal took office in January, with the first one devoted to changing the state’s ethics laws.

The 2008 regular session begins March 31.

Much of Jindal’s package of bills was passed in lopsided votes with little debate.

“I’ve been amazed at how things have gone. We receive the request, and everybody follows it,” said Rep. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge. “When I think it can’t get any faster, it gets faster.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, said the tax relief for businesses and the spending of surplus dollars would strengthen the state’s economy.

“We have to transform from an oil-based economy to an intellectual-based economy,” Cassidy said.

The tax breaks approved by lawmakers and the way the $1.1 billion surplus was spent would improve the business environment in the state, which would translate to better jobs, he said.

Jindal’s plan to spend the state’s $1.1 billion surplus was spelled out in House Bill 46, which cleared the Senate unanimously.