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THE NEW LIMITED SESSION. Louisiana House of Representatives Regular Session, 2005 BY: House Legislative Services March, 2005. The Rules Have Changed for 2005. Return to an every-other year rotation 2005 is a “limited” Regular Session 2006 will be a “general” Regular Session
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THE NEW LIMITED SESSION Louisiana House of Representatives Regular Session, 2005 BY: House Legislative Services March, 2005
The Rules Have Changed for 2005 • Return to an every-other year rotation • 2005 is a “limited” Regular Session • 2006 will be a “general” Regular Session • Not as “limited” as in prior years • Prefile an unlimited number of Fiscal Bills (Class I bills) • Prefile an unlimited number of Local Bills (Class II bills) • Prefile up to FIVE General Bills (Class III bills) • After prefiling deadline of April 15th, can introduce five additional bills, none of which can be Class III
Determining the Class of a Bill Class I - Fiscal Bills Class II - Local Bills Class III - General Bills
The General Appropriations Bill or any other bill appropriating state funds; the Capital Outlay Bill The bond authorization bill or any other bill with regard to the issuance of bonds. Any bill levying or authorizing a new tax or increasing an existing tax; Any bills whose object is to legislate with regard to tax exemptions, exclusions, deductions, reductions, repeals, or credits Any bill whose object is to levy, authorize, increase decrease, or repeal a fee Any bill whose object is to dedicate revenue Class I - Fiscal Bills
Class II - Local Bills • A Local or Special law • Local laws are those that operate only in a particular locality without the possibility of operating anywhere else and do not affect persons throughout the state nor operate on a subject in which the people at large are interested • Required to be advertised • Not every "local" bill is constitutionally required to be advertised • And which has been so advertised • But merely advertising a bill does not make it local
Class III - General Bills • Bills that are statewide in their application • Bills that appear to be “local” (perhaps we have traditionally advertised them) but are not truly “local” or are not constitutionally “required to be advertised” • Regulation of gaming industry, even if they have application in one particular parish • Court system and officers, even if limited to just one parish or one court • Agencies or facilities of state government, even if only in one locality • Deep water ports, regardless of where located.
Why the concern? • A member properly advertise a bill, prefiles it as a Class II bill, and it becomes law. • A member prefiles his maximum of 5 Class III bills. • The “local” bill ~ or maybe one of the Class III bills ~ is challenged, perhaps years later. • The court declares that the bill was not a local bill. • In actuality, the member prefiled 6 Class III bills; what is the remedy? • Does the court toss out the challenged bill; what if it was the first one filed? • Is the last filed Class III bill ruled unconstitutional? • Are all six Class III bills unconstitutional?
THE END House Legislative Services Staff Louisiana House of Representatives (225) 342-6125