Three area legislators are being honored for their support of legislation important to the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and state employers.
In LABI’s 21st Legislative Scorecard, 24 legislators earned the lobby group’s ranking of All-Stars, scoring 90 percent or higher during the past four-year term, the association said. They include Reps. Beryl Amedee and Jerome Zeringue, Republicans from Houma.
Tanner Magee, R-Houma, was named among Honorable Mentions, scoring 80 percent or higher on legislation important to LABI and its members during the past four years.
“While the 2019 scores are a helpful indicator of which lawmakers are focused on pro-growth, job-creating solutions, the real story is the cumulative term total,” said Stephen Waguespack, LABI president and CEO. “Legislators had to navigate an especially anti-business environment at the Capitol over the past four years, with tough battles, unique challenges and votes requiring particular courage on behalf of free enterprise. We’re proud to recognize those legislative leaders who rose to the challenge, especially as a critical election season kicks off what could be a turning point – or a point of no return.”
During this year’s legislative session, LABI led the way to enact comprehensive tort reform, seek taxpayer fairness and improve the economy, the organization said in a news release.
“Although opposed by the administration throughout the legislative process, a bill to require simple refunds of unconstitutional state taxes was signed into law by the governor. A major infrastructure funding package is now law that repurposes settlement funds from the Deepwater Horizon incident, and a statewide ridesharing bill passed after years of defeat in the Senate Judiciary A Committee. However, a package of bills to enact common-sense legal reforms to begin to lower high auto insurance rates flew through the House and once again met its fate in that same Senate committee,” LABI said.
This year’s LABI MVPs, All-Stars and Honorable Mentions will be honored Sept. 5 in Baton Rouge at the fourth annual LABI Free Enterprise Awards reception along with businesses and people who helped the state’s business climate.
For information, visit https://labi.org/events/free-enterprise-program.
LABI scores
(By session, term)
HOUSE
Beryl Amedee, R-Houma, 88, 95.
Truck Gisclair, D-Larose, 53, 43.
Tanner Magee, R-Houma 77, 83.
Dee Richard, Independent-Thibodaux, 65, 69.
Jerome Zeringue, R-Houma, 83, 90.
SENATE
Bret Allain, R-Franklin, 100, 76.
Norby Chabert, R-Houma, 100, 67.
Gary Smith, D-Norco 53, 45.
Visit labi.org/score-card to review this year’s report on LABI’s 2019 priorities, the outcomes of the recent fiscal session, descriptions of bills used in the scorecard analysis, individual legislative scores and the methodology behind the scores.