Jeff Landry opens legislative session with calls for changes in insurance and education [The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.]

Mar. 11—As he opened the regular legislative session Monday, Gov. Jeff Landry called for state lawmakers to deregulate the insurance industry, authorize a special convention to rewrite the Louisiana constitution and create a voucher-like program that gives public money to families to pay for private schools.

Landry spoke in broad strokes, providing few specifics on the exact changes that he wants lawmakers to make in the bills they will debate and pass during the three-month session.

In a brief interview afterward, he said he wants legislators to have latitude to propose their own ideas.

Landry's speech Monday ahead of a regular session called by the state constitution differed markedly from the two special sessions that he convened in January and February. Then, he offered a list of specific bills that he wanted lawmakers to pass.

In the first special session, they redrew the boundaries of the state's congressional lines to sacrifice the district of a Landry political foe, U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, to create a second Black-majority seat after a federal court ruling. Legislators also ended Louisiana's jungle primary system for many but not all of the elections that Landry sought.

In the second special session, Landry got virtually all he wanted as lawmakers approved a package of 20 anti-crime bills that he sought. The new laws will make it easier for Louisiana to execute condemned people on death row, to toughen penalties for criminals and limit their opportunities for second chances in parole and post-conviction appeals.

The regular session offers him the next opportunity to put his conservative stamp on state policies, but he didn't provide specifics on Monday.

Nor did he reach for the red-meat lines that animated conservative audiences during last year's campaign.

"Together we can improve our educational system, develop and re-develop our economy, lower crime, safeguard our environment, and bring meaningful and everlasting improvements to this beautiful state," he said in a closing summary. "Let's run a government that now works for, not against, the people of our state."

Insurance deregulation

The first major items on the session's agenda, according to legislative leaders, are Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple's proposals to reduce government regulations on property insurance companies. The goal is to lure more of them to the state with the expectation that this will reduce or limit rates.

In his speech, Landry indicated that he is following the lead of Temple on how to reduce the high cost of property insurance, perhaps the most important and intractable issue facing the state.

"Our new insurance commissioner is working tirelessly to find solutions that make Louisiana an attractive market for more companies to write here," Landry said. "There will be several additional ideas and proposals before you this session addressing the insurance crisis. I urge you to listen carefully to this debate and arrive at the solutions that are fair to the consumer and will work to attracting the companies we need to insure them."

In a brief interview afterward, Temple said he, the governor and lawmakers have agreed to move quickly to show the re-insurance market that Louisiana is serious about lowering rates.

Temple has proposed bills to end a rule that bans insurers from dropping homeowners who have been customers for at least three years, to dramatically change the way insurance claims are handled, and to let insurers hike rates without his approval.

Constitutional convention

Landry said the current state Constitution, approved by voters in 1974 under then-Gov. Edwin Edwards, is too long. In contrast, he said, Massachusetts, a blue state, amends its document only rarely.

A leaner document, with many provisions shifted into state laws that the Legislature can more easily change, calls for less say by voters, who must approve constitutional amendments.

"Again and again, we ask our people to act as legal scholars and analyze complicated and arcane legal propositions," he told the 144 legislators who gathered in the House chamber. "This is not a fair request of our voters — and these decisions are precisely what they elected you to handle."

Does Landry favor a bill that would legislators serve as the delegates during to write the constitution? Is he open to a new constitution that reduces the homestead exemption? That makes it easier to cut currently protected spending on K-12 schools?

The governor didn't say.

House Speaker Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice, and Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said they are in step with Landry in wanting to pass legislation calling for a constitutional convention.

State Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia and the chair of the House and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he will sponsor the legislation that would call for a convention to be held this summer but is still finalizing the details.

The idea has its critics.

"The constitutional convention will be driven entirely by the good old boys network, and I doubt they're going to draw up a constitution for the vast majority of Louisianans," said Peter Robins-Brown, executive director of Louisiana Progress, a Baton Rouge progressive nonprofit.

School choice proposals

Louisiana has consistently rated low on national education standards as governor after governor — Republican and Democrat alike — has barely been able to move the needle despite making education improvements a priority.

Landry noted the dismal figures, saying 70% of fourth graders can't read at grade level and 80% of eighth graders "can't do basic math."

As a remedy, Landry said he wants to "put parents back in control, and let the money follow the child." He has praised Education Savings Accounts as a way to do so but did mention the program in his speech.

The key unanswered question for now under an ESA program is how many school kids will be allowed to use taxpayer dollars for their private schools. The more who do, the bigger the hit to the state treasury.

In the one hot-button line during his speech, Landry said parents want to be "free from being indoctrinated by the latest radical social cause." State lawmakers passed bills last year to block talk of gender identity and sexual orientation from classrooms that were vetoed by then-Gov. John Bel Edwards. Though Landry didn't mention them Monday, similar bills have been filed this session.

Landry also made no mention of plans to redraw the lines of the seven-member elected state Supreme Court, but Henry said he expects a Senate committee to begin the process by passing legislation on Wednesday to do so. Attempts to remap the court during both special sessions failed in the Senate.

Landry spoke to a joint chamber, with the 105 House members sitting at their assigned desks and the 39 senators arrayed on folding chairs facing him. The governor's wife Sharon and his son J.T. sat directly in front of him.

A proud Cajun from St. Martinville, Landry loves to joke around but injected humor only once during his 20-minute address as he cited Rep. Francis Thompson, the longest serving legislator in Louisiana history.

Landry mentioned how Camille Gravel, a legendary lawyer who advised numerous governors and died in 2005 at age 90, could recite the entire constitution back in the day but no one could do that today because of all the amendments added over the years.

"I know some of you remember him," Landry said. "Rep. Thompson remembers him, I know, but Francis knew Abraham Lincoln, too."

Thompson and his colleagues laughed heartily.

Staff writer Meghan Friedmann contributed to this article.

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