Upbeat mood for legislative recap from Iberia delegation

Published 8:00 am Wednesday, July 31, 2019

The annual Greater Iberia Chamber of Commerce “Eggs and Issues” legislative recap Tuesday morning could also be seen as a sort of “Hail and Farewell” for the current Iberia Parish legislative delegation.

Two of the four members present — Speaker of the House Taylor Barras and Rep. Terry Landry — will be hanging up their legislative spurs at the end of the year, leaving the other two legislators present, Sen. Fred Mills and Rep. Blake Miguez, to carry on.

The mood, however, was upbeat, especially considering the dire predictions of previous gatherings as the state struggled with its fiscal cliff. A capacity crowd gathered at the Ramada Inn on Highway 14 at 7 a.m. to hear from the Iberia Parish delegation.

“The record we set this year is that we only had one session,” Barras joked.

“I have to thank the speaker for all he has done,” Mills said. “And Miguez, he still has his baby teeth. He’ll be here a while.”

Miguez made it clear that even though the legislators may have different views and backgrounds, they forged a working relationship that worked.

“Taylor knows a little bit about everything, especially on the banking and the money side,” Miguez said. “Sen. Mills is always there to mediate, and Terry and I are always fussing, but the one thing is the Iberia delegation always sticks together.”

“We need to start a petition to draft him for governor,” Landry said of Barras.

Each of the legislators had a chance to speak on their accomplishments during the session. For Miguez, that was a bill that would allow drilling companies to move pipe and other assets to rigs on the outer continental shelf without having to incur ad valorem taxes on the material.

“I went to the oil companies and said I want to keep the jobs in Louisiana,” Miguez said. “I went to the assessors for those parishes and told them I don’t want to take the money from your coffers.”

Landry spoke about his work on infrastructure and the challenges the state faces as its roads and bridges continue to age.

“We are $14 billion behind on our infrastructure,” Landry said. “We’re not even talking about adding capacity. We have our Highway Priority Program, we have the I-49 Corridor. Just building a bridge in Baton Rouge is a $500 million, $1 billion project.”

Landry told the leaders gathered in the room that the only way to get ahead on the backlog is to focus on a large-scale plan.

“Let the highway commission do the jobs instead of redirecting our funds for pet projects,” Landry said.

Mills touched on infrastructure in his comments, talking about the crisis facing the state’s water systems.

“When they grade the water systems in Louisiana, we’re a D-minus,” Mills said. “We need to get our people healthier if we want to save money.”

Mills also discussed to Iberia-centric pieces of legislation — Senate Bill 92 which streamlined the process for medical staff nominees to the Iberia Medical Center Board, and Senate Bill 36, which had to be rewritten to prevent free-standing emergency rooms from opening within the IMC footprint.

“I had to explain that a stand-alone emergency room is not a walk-in clinic or urgent care,” Mills said. “These are operations that cherry-pick the clients, taking those with the best pay dollars. Indigent care goes to the hospital.”

Barras spoke about the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program and the positive impact it has had on job growth.

“We have three LNG operations in Cameron Parish because of what Texas did,” Barras said, explaining how Louisiana’s neighbor had decentralized its industrial tax program to the point that companies could not get steady or quick answers.

“You want to have that local seat at the table, but sometimes it has to be more controlled,” Barras said. “What fixes our ailments in education, what fixes our ailments in infrastructure, is job creation.”

Chamber President Janet Faulk-Gonzales called several board members up to present Barras with a stained glass window depicting a tree as an appreciation of his work on behalf of the Teche Area.