The State of Louisiana's Legislative State

By Joe Mapes

Louisiana Farm Bureau Legislative Specialist

As we approach the 2025 regular session of the Louisiana legislature, beginning April 14th and ending June 12th, many people wonder when is the best time to connect with their legislator to educate them regarding issues important to agriculture. The answer is all year long. You should be talking to your legislators in their office in your district, in your churches, grocery stores, and your festival grounds any chance you get. Your children go to the same schools as your legislator's children, so catch your senator or representative at the popcorn stand at the football game. The point is that you are strongest as an advocate for agriculture standing on your home ground, rather than dressing up to come to the legislature. We'll talk a whole lot more about this at the upcoming leadership conference, at which I will be speaking.

We recently concluded the first year of Governor Jeff Landry's administration, which included four legislative sessions: three special sessions and one regular session lasting 85 days.

The last session was a special session on tax reform and notably taxed 11 previously untaxed services. There are discussions about revisiting tax reforms in the upcoming April regular session possibly taxing every service in Louisiana that is not currently taxed.

Many legislators and Governor Landry have gotten a lot of complaints about the high cost of insurance in Louisiana, so the Governor has totd legislators that he has prioritized insurance reform, urging legislators to find effective solutions to reduce insurance rates for homeowners and drivers. He further told legislators that he will focus the first three weeks of the upcoming 60-day regular Louisiana session on insurance reform. Legislators have told us that the governor has said to put whatever legislation it takes to reform insurance on his desk and he will sign it.

Regardless, agriculture lost three tax exemptions in the last special session on tax reform, and these removals were never discussed with us, or Commissioner Strain, prior to the session. As a matter of fact, we we told that agriculture would not be on the table during that session. The truth is that it could have been worse if Commissioner Strain hadn't met with the Governor and explained how important it is to agriculture to keep "use value" in the Louisiana state constitution. The governor was considering putting use value in the legislative call until Strain spoke with him.

The tax programs that agriculture lost during the last session of 2024 were the Dairy incentive program, the grain-bin storage tax exemption, and the named-storms barbed-wire fence exemption.

The fact that these changes occurred without prior consultation with us or the commissioner highlights the need for vigilance regarding future legislative sessions, and that brings us to what's most important which is grassroots involvement in the legislative process. Your involvement as an educator for agriculture is crucial. When you receive emails or texts urging you to participate in legislative processes, just hit the submit button. please. Your engagement makes all the difference. Remember, legislators prioritize their reelections, and they rely on input from experts like you and me to justify their decisions.

Currently, we don't foresee specific threats to agriculture. However, the unregulated solar industry poses a significant concern.

Fortunately, Representative Brett Geymann, Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, plans to author a bill to regulate this industry, drawing respect from both the oil and gas and agricultural sectors. We serve on a working committee planning and drafting the legislation with representative Geymann and we look forward to his leadership on this issue.

Hopefully you understand how important your role as a voting constituent who supports agriculture is to the process. You, me, and all of our friends in agriculture must continue to establish and maintain relationships with legislators to educate them properly regarding agriculture. We'll continue to educate them down in Baton Rouge at the Capitol and as we travel the state meeting legislators throughout the year, and we expect you to do the same back home when it comes to communicating with your legislators. You are a group that understands that 10% of the people do 90% of the work. Y'all are 10%-ers. If you and I and our friends aren't at the table representing agriculture's issues, then our issues will be on the somebody else's menu, so let's get out there and do this thing called Agriculture together.