Two Louisiana lawmakers have stalled in their attempt to sidestep Gov. Kathleen Blanco by having their colleagues call a special legislative session next month to deal with Louisiana’s insurance woes.
Rep. Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, and Sen. Tom Schedler, R-Mandeville, co-chairmen of the Republican Legislative Delegation, set a self-imposed deadline on Oct. 19 to get 53 House members and 20 senators to sign a petition calling lawmakers into a session beginning Nov. 8.
Tucker said he had roughly 36 of the 103 House members signed up. Schedler said he had 12 of the 39 senators.
If a majority of the two chambers does not sign the petition calling a special session, there is still another route to take, Tucker said.
If one-third of the members of each chamber – 13 senators and 35 House members – sign the petition for a special session, the House speaker and Senate president must send out a ballot polling lawmakers on whether they want to have one. The names of those who voted for and against the session are public record after the mail ballots are returned.
The state Constitution allows lawmakers to call themselves into a special session, but they have not done so in modern times.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco said she will call a special session in December to deal with the Citizens problems and possibly ante up money to help attract a large manufacturing plant to St. James Parish. Administration officials said they want to see how much state budget surplus is available before calling a session.
Tucker and Schedler’s petition includes two areas for the session to address: faster issuance of grants by the Louisiana Recovery Authority to help victims of the two hurricanes last year; and using some of the $800 million-plus surplus from the fiscal year that ended June 30, plus some of the anticipated $250 million to $350 million surplus from the current budget year, to pay off $1 billion in bonds issued by the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-run homeowners’ insurer of last resort. The plan would also use some of the surpluses to repay all homeowners for the assessments levied on their insurance policies to help cover Citizens’ expenses.
The budget surplus numbers will not be certified until revenue estimators meet in early December.
Information from: The Times-Picayune, www.nola.com.
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
Jury Awards $80M to 3 Former Zurich NA Employees for Wrongful Termination 
4,800 Claims Handled by Unlicensed Adjusters in Florida After Irma, Lawsuit Says 
Chubb to Acquire MGA Healthy Paws From Aon 
North Carolina Adjuster and Son Charged With Embezzlement in Roof Jobs 
