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

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) 342-6125