Since revenue bills have to start in the House, most of the action of Gov. Jeff Landry’s(mostly) tax-focused special section so far has happened on the representatives’ side of the Capitol. 

Landry’s package has been advancing in the opening days, while senators watch and wait. Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Chair Franklin Foil said his committee probably would not start taking up the bills until Friday, at the earliest. 

At this point, Foil still believes the most likely outcome is that a significant portion of the administration’s overhaul will pass during the special session, but not necessarily all of it. 

“I think we should continue to move all of the bills in the package through the process and have this very important dialogue,” he said. “I also believe that if we do not pass some parts of the package during the special session, it’s clearly something we can take up in the fiscal session in the spring.” 

For that approach, getting the constitutional amendment passed in March will be key to giving lawmakers a freer hand when the regular session opens in April, he added. 

For now, senators have two main jobs: communicating with stakeholders, while making sure they understand the language in the bills, including the amendments made in the House. 

One point of confusion relates to the homestead exemption. Some lawmakers have looked at bills dealing with property taxes and concluded that the administration intends to take the homestead exemption out of the Constitution, which would be politically radioactive for many members. 

But the administration says the language that is leaving that impression actually reflects a reorganization meant to keep all the homestead exemption statutes together. In other words, the homestead exemption will still have constitutional protection if everything passes, an administration official explained. 

As Foil notes, plenty of people love getting an income tax cut but are less supportive of the changes the administration wants to make to ensure the math works and massive deficits are avoided. The administration says at least some of the economic incentive programs that would be ended might be replaced by different programs with similar goals.

LED plans to propose a new suite of economic development tools to replace the ones that would sunset on June 30 during the regular session. 

As of Monday afternoon, Senate Finance was the only committee in the upper chamber with a hearing scheduled and posted for this week. The committee plans to take up SB 5 by Judiciary C Chair Jay Morris is a constitutional amendment to fill newly created judgeships and judicial vacancies. 

Morris also has filed SB 1, a constitutional amendment to allow the Legislature (with a two-thirds vote) to establish specialty courts.