Local legislators give updates at Chamber of Commerce breakfast

By JANELL PARFAIT
Louisiana State Representatives Beryl Amedee and Sam Jones along with state Senator Bret Allain met in Franklin Wednesday to discuss the current state of Louisiana and St. Mary Parish.
The St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce legislative breakfast was held at the Forest Restaurant.
Amedee spoke about the approaching pre-filing deadline for Louisiana, which is set for April 10.
“As of yesterday, there were, I think, 197 bills already proposed,” Amedee said. “But I really expect it to be about 1,200 by the time it’s all said and done.”
Amedee said the oil industry is recovering in all affected states except Louisiana. She cited hurricanes, an unpredictable state budget and legacy lawsuits as the main culprits behind the state’s oil slump.
A legacy lawsuit refers to a lawsuit by a landowner claiming that oil and gas operations, often many years ago, caused his property to become polluted and contaminated. These suits typically name every operator who ever worked at the site as defendants, often going back decades.
“(The legacy lawsuits) put Louisiana at a disadvantage from our neighboring states,” Amedee said. “So until our governor chooses to stop pursuing the legacy lawsuits that are in play right now, the oil industry leaders have told us that they can’t consider coming back.”
Equal pay, minimum wage and pay secrecy are on the legislative agenda as well.
“It seems that we really don’t have an equal pay problem as the equal pay lobby is trying to promote to us,” Amedee said. “What (the lobby is) doing is they’re taking the average pay of all men in the state and comparing it to the average pay of women in the state and saying that the men are making more than the women. The women are only getting fifty, sixty cents on the dollar compared to men… The problem is you don’t qualify when you talk all the men’s pay and all the women’s pay and you don’t look to what fields they’re in.”
Amedee asked that everyone encourage “more of our women to pursue training and education and jobs in fields that traditionally pay more.”
Jones addressed the decay of St. Mary Parish’s roads and bridges.
“I don’t think we’ve done any railroads in the last 15 years,” Jones said. “The $12 million backlog on roads is not here; it’s in a whole lot of other places.”
He also mentioned the oil industry and that there is 250 years of natural reserve located beneath Louisiana’s shale plates.
“For 250 years, we don’t have to be in the Middle East anymore,” Jones said.
In addition, Jones said that a natural gas station like the ones in Lake Charles and Plaquemines may be coming to St. Mary Parish.
“The world changes, folks. And when it changes, we have to change with it,” he said. “And if we’re really smart, we have to get ahead of that.”
Allain compared the state of St. Mary Parish to Terrebonne Parish, a parish he once served.
“Terrebonne Parish has and continues to kick our butt,” he said. “(The Terrebonne Parish government) consolidated many years ago. They don’t have a duplication of services of police and fire and a lot of other things…They can take things and put them to ward infrastructure to attract new businesses.”
Allain also said that St. Mary Parish President David Hanagriff is only a part-time employee, compared to other parish presidents throughout the state.
“The idea that our parish president makes $12,000 a year as a part-time employee while every parish around us has full-time parish presidents that are on airplanes, going talk to these companies all the time—and we wonder why we’re getting our butts kicked?” Allain said. “If we don’t wake up and change a few things, we’re (going to) lose.”
He also discussed the taxation of businesses across Louisiana. He mentioned the Ohio model, where a commercial tax is applied to business with taxable gross receipts for their service to the state.
“If we want to put the rest of those (taxes) on the table and have a discussion about them, maybe gross receipts make a little more sense,” Allain said. “Now, not all money went to (Ohio). Some of them went to the locals”
“I think everybody agrees that we’ve got to do something about the roads,” he continued. Allain said that Louisiana legislators do not trust that St. Mary Parish’s money will go to roads and bridges.
“With all these dedications and lockboxes, we can’t do our job,” he said. “We’re (going to) put (money) in roads and bridges, and it has to be a mechanism where (legislators) can’t take it for anything else.”
The chamber also recognized local businesses J .M. Burguières Co. and Thompson, Smith and Leach Insurance for their longevity and service to St. Mary Parish.