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 15 th, 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

 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 II - Local 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. Class III - General Bills

Why the concern?  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?  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 END House Legislative Services Staff Louisiana House of Representatives (225)