[StBernard] Update From State Representative Nita Rusich Hutter

[Westley Annis]

Update From State Representative Nita Rusich Hutter

December 1, 2005 


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

This is the second part of the 2005 Special Session Wrap Up. If you have any
questions regarding any of the legislation mentioned below, please call our
Baton Rouge office at 225-342-7368.  Thank you.

Nita Hutter

 

ELECTIONS

*          House Bill 27 calls for a special statewide election on April 29,
2006 for the purpose of submitting any proposed constitutional amendments
proposed by the legislature to the electors.  

            The bill has completed the legislative process and awaits
gubernatorial action.

RETIREMENT/BENEFITS

*          House Bill 18 by Rep. Hutter allows a member of any state or
statewide public retirement system on involuntary furlough or leave without
pay due to a gubernatorially declared disaster or emergency to purchase
credit for the period of the furlough or leave by paying both the employer
and employee contributions to the system. The period for which they could
purchase service and salary credit is August 29, 2005 through June 30, 2006.
The employee will make the payments to his employer who in turn will remit
them to the system.  The employee may also opt to make a lump sum payment
upon his return to work any delinquent payment shall be treated in the same
manner as the employer's delinquent payment and requires payment of interest
on the delinquent contributions.

            The bill has completed the legislative process.

SCHOOLS

*          House Bill 121 allows the state to take over certain schools and
place them in the Recovery School District.  Under present law, the state
can take over schools that are academically unacceptable for four
consecutive years or filed schools for which the school board has failed to
present or implement an acceptable reconstitution plan under the school and
district accountability plan.  This bill allows the takeover of any school
performing below the state average and in a system academically in crisis,
not just failing schools.  The schools may be recreated as a Type 5 charter
school by the Recovery School District.

            No member of BESE can be a member of the governing or management
board of any Type 5 charter school and no member of certain school boards
can serve as a member of the governing or management boards of these charter
schools.  Further, no elected official or anyone who has served as an
elected official for a period of at least one year prior to appointment may
serve as a member of the governing or management board.  No additional
schools can be transferred to the Recovery School District on or after
November 15, 2008. 

*          SCR 29 adjusts the Minimum Foundation Program formula for the
2005-06 school year.  Under the resolution about $64 million in state school
spending is cut.  Funds were reduced to New Orleans area schools, which lost
about 80,000 students due to Hurricane Katrina.  Funding was increased to
parishes which have increased enrollments due to displaced students. Those
parishes will receive $1,250 for each displaced student.

            The resolution has completed the legislative process.

TOPS  

*          House Bill 142 modifies the eligibility requirements for TOPS
awards for displaced students for the 2005-06 school year.

            Students displaced due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita include
those with a home of record in the parishes of Jefferson, Lafourche,
Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Washington,
Acadia, Allen Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Iberia, Jefferson Davis, St.
Mary, Terrebonne, and Vermillion.  Students who were eligible for or who had
a program award and who had enrolled or who were accepted at colleges and
universities in the affected areas or students who lived in the affected
areas and evacuated to other states can qualify for exceptions.  Exceptions
include the waiver of the minimum number of course hours required for
retention of TOPS, a specified grade point average or making academic
progress.  Students who do not re-enroll or took fewer classes in
out-of-state schools during the 2005-06 school year can reclaim their
scholarships when they return and not lose a year of eligibility.  The bill
awaits gubernatorial action.

*          House Bill 143 changes the initial eligibility requirements for
TOPS awards for high school students displaced during the 2005-06 school
year due to Hurricanes Katrina or Rita.  Students from specified parishes
affected by the hurricanes would be allowed to graduate from out-of-state
high schools or complete the 12th grade level of a home study program.
Students who spent their entire 11th grade in a Louisiana high school may
apply for TOPS.   The bill also allows counting all courses in calculating
grade point average, not just core courses and does not require an
additional three points on the ACT for home-schooled or non-certified high
school graduates.  The affected parishes are Jefferson, Lafourche, Orleans,
Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Washington, Acadia,
Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Iberia, Jefferson Davis, St. Mary,
Terrebonne, or Vermilion.  The bill has completed the legislative process.

COASTAL PLAN

*          Senate Bill 27/Senate Bill 71,a constitutional amendment and
enabling legislation,authorizes the development and implementation of a
comprehensive coastal protection plan and places the responsibility for
direction and development of the plan in the Coastal Protection and
Restoration Authority (under present law the Wetlands Conservation and
Restoration Authority).  The bill provides for the powers, duties and
membership of the authority.  The legislative committees on natural
resources and on transportation, highways and public works have oversight of
the annual plan.  The attorney general shall serve as the legal advisor of
the authority and represent the authority in any legal proceedings.  The
primary responsibility for carrying out the plan relative to coastal
wetlands conservation and restoration is placed in the office of coastal
restoration and management within the Department of Natural Resources.
Primary responsibility for carrying out the elements of the plan relative to
hurricane protection is placed in the office of public works within the
Department of Transportation and Development.  In order to maximize coastal
protection, the secretaries of the Department of Natural Resources and the
Department of Transportation and Development, and the governor's executive
assistant for coastal activities, shall use an integrated team effort to
jointly coordinate master plan development with federal agencies and
political subdivisions.  Senate Bill 27 will go before the voters on April
29.

LEASES

*          House Bill 88 allows landlords in the areas affected by
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita between August 26, 2005 and June 30, 2006 to
enter the leased premises without the permission of the lessee to inspect
the premises and make necessary repairs.  The lessor is required to preserve
salvageable property and may dispose of a renter's unsalvageable property.
The lessor is required to make a reasonable effort to notify the lessee at
least 10 days before preserving or disposing of the property.  The cost of
removing the property and preserving the salvageable property will be at the
lessee's expense unless covered by the lessor's insurance or he is entitled
to receive funds from FEMA or another source.  The cost of moving and
preserving the property while necessary repairs are being made shall be
deducted from the rent.  The lessor may take photographs or videotape the
property being disposed of and the property being preserved but the failure
to do shall not shift the burden to the lessor to prove the condition of or
any other fact related to the property.  The lessor may also take an
inventory of the property.  The inventory is to be made in the presence of a
notary and two competent witnesses.  The lessor is required to keep written
records of contacts with insurance agents and other investigators and of
decisions of retrieval, preservation, and removal of movable property.  The
landlord shall salvage water-damaged books, heirlooms, photographs and
documents.  If undamaged, movable property is in an unstable environment or
area that is not secure, the lessor shall move the undamaged, movable
property to any available storage site closest in proximity to the leased
premises.

            The lessee is presumed to have abandoned the property if the
lessor has provided him with emergency contact information and the lessee
has failed to remain current on his rent and not informed the lessor of his
intention to remain in the leased premises within 30 days from the date that
the affected area has been declared available for inspection by the local
governing authority in accordance with the Louisiana Homeland Security and
Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act.  The lessor , in order to determine
if the property has been abandoned, shall make a reasonable effort to
contact the lessee.  In the event the property is totally destroyed, the
lease is terminated and the lessor is required to reimburse the rent paid
since the time of the destruction of the property unless otherwise agreed by
the parties.  The lessor may deduct the amounts spent for removal and
preservation of property, unless covered by insurance.

            The bill has completed the legislative process.

PRISONERS

 *         House Bill 28, which has completed the legislative process, would
protect sheriffs from lawsuits filed by hurricane-evacuated prisoners who
have been incarcerated beyond their release dates.  The bill provides that
no prisoner who has been evacuated during and immediately after Hurricane
Katrina or Rita to another prison can sue prison or law enforcement
authorities for failure to timely release the prisoner, including the lack
of access to prison records to ascertain when the prisoner is to be
released.  The bill also provides that the sheriff or law enforcement agency
shall be liable if they make no attempt to ascertain when the prisoner is to
be released and fail to release the prisoner.  The proposed law would apply
retroactively to August 29, 2005.

*          House Bill 127 provides for the medical expenses of inmates who
are transferred to or from a parish prison and hospital, when the governor
has made a disaster declaration in the parish where the prisoner is
incarcerated, and when the LSU Board of Supervisors declares the state
hospital has been rendered inoperable and is unable to provide medical
treatment to those inmates.  The proposed legislation requires the state to
be responsible for and to reimburse the appropriate authority for all of the
medical care costs of those prisoners.   If approved, the Act would become
effective upon the governor's signature.

            House Bill 127 has completed the Legislative process.

PROPERTY EXPROPRIATION FOR "DESIGN-BUILD" PROJECTS

*        House Bill 15 provides for the petition to expropriate property
needed by the La. Department of Transportation and Development for
construction of design/build highway projects.  A design/build project is a
method of highway contracting in which the contractor is responsible for
both the design and the actual construction.  House Bill 15 retains the
requirements of the petition to expropriate in present law, and applies
those requirements to property needed for design-build projects and the
information which must be annexed to the petition. House Bill 15 has
received full Legislative approval.

LA. HEALTHCARE AFFORDABILITY ACT 

*        House Bill 131 would change the effective date of the Louisiana
Healthcare Affordability Act from June 28, 2005 to July 1, 2007.

            The Louisiana Healthcare Affordability Act, which was passed in
the 2005 Regular Session, establishes a fee of 1.5 percent on the net
patient revenues on certain general acute care hospitals.  The Act provides
an exemption of the fee for any hospital owned by the state, any federally
owned hospital, rural hospitals as defined by the Rural Hospital
Preservation Act, hospitals that are certified by Medicare for long-term
acute care, and rehabilitation or psychiatric hospitals. The bill creates
the Louisiana Healthcare Affordability Trust Fund in the state treasury, and
for the deposit of revenues collected from the fee and provides for
appropriation and uses of monies from the fund., including use in the
Medicaid program.

            House Bill 131awaits the governor's signature.

WATER DAMAGED VEHICLES

*          House Bill 11 is a consumer protection bill that provides for the
destruction of vehicles that have sustained extensive water damage due to a
gubernatorially - declared disaster, for a certificate of destruction,
application requirements, restrictions on sale, disassembly requirement,
rules and penalties. This proposed law applies only to a water damaged
vehicle which has been declared a total loss as a result of an insurance
settlement.  The insurance company that acquires ownership of the vehicle
would be required to send the certificate of title, license plate and
registration to the OMV along with an application for a certificate of
destruction within 30 days after the vehicle is determined to be water
damaged.  The application would be accompanied by the fee required for an
original certificate of title.

            Upon receipt of the application, the OMV would issue a
certificate of destruction, conspicuously labeled with the designation. No
vehicle which has been issued a certificate of destruction could be issued a
salvage or reconstructed title for use on Louisiana roads, nor could such a
vehicle be resold retail.  The vehicle must be dismantled, sold for any
usable parts or crushed. Vehicles in excess of 20,000 pounds GVW are exempt.
A person who acquires the vehicle for which a certificate of destruction has
been issued need not apply for a permit to dismantle: the certificate of
destruction itself would be sufficient. 

            The certificate of destruction shall be reassign able a maximum
of two times prior to dismantling or destruction of the vehicle. After the
vehicle has been crushed or scrapped, the owner would be required to
surrender the certificate of destruction to the OMV, marked with the word
"recycled." A violation of the proposed law would be a misdemeanor and
punishable by up to six months imprisonment, a fine of $500 to $5,000, or
both.  An application for a title, other than a certificate of destruction
of a vehicle previously titled or registered outside of this state would be
denied.  The Department of Public Safety and Corrections may adopt rules and
regulations necessary to carry out the provisions of this legislation. House
Bill 11 has completed the legislative process.