St. Mary lawmakers look back at special session

St. Mary’s state legislators looked back at the recent special session Wednesday with some pride in having helped hurricane victims and displaced Louisiana high school students hoping to qualify for TOPS, and for movement on a couple of multimillion-dollar capital projects.
State Reps. Vincent St. Blanc, R-Franklin, and Beryl Amedee, R-Gray, and state Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, spoke about the special session Wednesday at a St. Mary Chamber luncheon at the Petroleum Club of Morgan City.
St. Blanc pointed to relief for southwest Louisiana high school students forced to finish high school out of state because of this year’s hurricanes. The students will be eligible for free Louisiana state college tuition under the TOPS program if they meet the guidelines set out by the Legislature.
Lawmakers also found $85 million for the unemployment insurance trust fund, boosting the fund back over the $100 million mark and avoiding, at least for now, the need to borrow from the federal government and impose additional charges on businesses.
Even then, Allain said later, “we’ll probably have to borrow another $100 million from the feds.”
St. Blanc also pointed to additional funding for the Main Street funding program for small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, the Legislature turned aside efforts to create no-excuse absentee and mail voting as a coronavirus measure, and Amedee counted that as an accomplishment. She said it avoided the long counting process that battleground states are going through with the presidential election.
Amedee also spoke in support of the petition put together by GOP lawmakers to limit Gov. Joh Bel Edwards’ power to impose emergency measures to control COVID-19.
The petition is based on a little-used state law. It says the petition can be presented to the governor and end the emergency proclamation on which the measures are based for seven days.
Attorney General Jeff Landry has backed his fellow Republicans. Edwards has sued to stop enforcement of the petition.
Amedee said Edwards’ measures were imposed unilaterally without consultation with lawmakers.
“To us, that means the people have no voice in the matter,” Amedee said.
On Thursday, Edwards extended Phase 3 coronavirus measures for another month.
Allain noted that the governor vetoed legislation by Mark Wright, R-Covington, that would have allowed lawmakers to block individual COVID-19 restrictions without meeting in person.
The St. Mary senator preferred Sen. Page Cortez’ legislation, which would have created a panel to oversee the governor’s coronavirus measures.
Allain said St. Mary will benefit from two big projects.
One is the Bayou Chene Flood Control Structure, designed to prevent back-flooding in St. Mary, lower St. Martin and surrounding parishes. The $80 million project will eliminate the need to sink a barge in Bayou Chene, a remedy used four times since 1973 at a cost of millions each time.
All the contracts for the Bayou Chene project have been awarded, Allain said. He praised St. Mary Levee District Chairman Bill Hidalgo, Executive Director Tim Matte and the district’s staff for their work.
The other project is the $9 million wellness center at Franklin Foundation Hospital.