New laws are in effect

State Rep. Jack Montoucet has been doing this for eight years now, but this year was probably the worst.
“It was probably the most grueling and horrible session I have ever been in,” he said.
Montoucet, D-Crowley, spoke Friday morning to AP40, Acadia Parish’s group of young professionals. He recapped the recent legislative session, touching on the budget and bills of local interest and much more.
The program Friday morning served as another gathering of AP40, which has continued to see growth and enthusiasm since its inception in the latter part of 2014, according to Parker Mitchell, chairperson of the group.
“We hope to channel this energy and enthusiasm into doing some great things for the community,” he said.
“As always, we recognize that growing is important and we continue to welcome new members in hopes of showing that Acadia Parish is one of the best areas in the state to work and live.”
It was the perfect timing, really, considering Saturday, Aug. 1, marked the “go-into-effect” day for many of the bills signed into law this year.
Some acts have already gone into effect, of course, such as the 50-cent increase in the cigarette taxes. As Montoucet pointed out Friday, those funds have already been allocated to health care and will not just be thrown into the budget.
The new laws run the gamut it seems, touching on marijuana (medical and criminal), domestic violence, sex offenses, government and, of course education.
Still, Montoucet was most proud of his choice of higher education and health care over corporations.
“Corporations are really mad at me,” he said. “They took out 16 different ads because I was taking one penny of four away from them — and it was a suspension, I wasn’t taking it away from them.”
It was, however, House Concurrent Resolution 8, which is currently being challenged in the court system over its passage, that Montoucet spent a great deal of his time on Friday with the young professionals as he hoped to clear up misconceptions about the sales tax suspension.
The biggest misnomer seems to be that the suspension affects everyone, according to Montoucet, the 16-month (in total) suspension mostly effects chemical companies, many of which are housed along the Mississippi River.
“Not every business is going to be affected like lobby is indicating,” said Montoucet. “This 1-cent sales tax that I suspended is for the production of electricity with steam, diesel, coal and all of those things that are used to produce electricity.
“They want you to believe that your business will be paying one cent sales tax — you’re already paying sales tax. You pay the four cents, you don’t get an exemption.”
Other local-interest bills included Act 86 which allows the Crowley chief of police, as an elected official, the autonomy to appoint, discipline and discharge police personnel (subject, of course, to budgetary limitations), and Act 378, which does not go into effect until Jan. 1, 2016.
The so-called “Monica Landry Helo Early Detection Act” allows a patient to be sent his or her results from mammograms and ultrasound reports, empowering the patient and hopefully removing many of the false negatives on these tests.
Montoucet was also very excited about Act 53, which has given the town of Duson the power to go to its electorate and potentially levy up to a 4 percent hotel occupancy tax per room. The hope is that, if approved, Duson could begin seeing development of its own, particularly along the backdrop of Interstate 10.
The state representative, who will be seeking his final term in office this year, also touched on Common Core and how the fighting between legislators seemed to end in support of finding a common end to the national standards, replacing them with state-created standards and testing.
Three acts made that move possible — Act 329, which requires the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to hold public hearings in each Congressional district for input on the standards; Act 245, which states that the changes presented to the governor and the House and Senate committees on education must be either accepted or rejected as a single package; and Act 342, which limits the standardized testing measures from a multi-state consortium like PARCC to less than 50 percent of the questions presented to students this school year.
But, as it was a meeting of young professionals, Montoucet was quick to thank those in attendance for having an interest in politics, noting that it is up to the younger voters and generations to take up the mantle as time goes on.