Louisiana's premier business and industry group released its annual legislative score card Wednesday, ranking the state's 144 lawmakers based their voting record during this year's session. A majority of those lawmakers ranked the highest, and lowest, on the list came from the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas. The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, or LABI, based their 2013...
Louisiana's premier business and industry group released its annual legislative score card Wednesday, ranking the state's 144 lawmakers based their voting record during this year's session. A majority of those lawmakers ranked the highest, and lowest, on the list came from the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas.
The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, or LABI, based their 2013 ranking on how lawmakers voted on five House bills and seven Senate bills. Five legislators garnered a perfect score from the influential business lobby while four found themselves at the bottom of the rankings.
The five top scorers were all Republicans: state Reps. Bryan Adams of Gretna and Stuart Bishop of Lafayette and state Sens. Dan Claitor of Baton Rouge, Danny Martiny of Metairie and Mike Walsworth of West Monroe.
Only one Republican ranked at the bottom, Fiscal Hawk leader Brett Geymann of Lake Charles. The other three were Democratic members of the Legislative Black Caucus: state Reps. Kenny Cox of Natchitoches and Ted James of Baton Rouge and state Sen. J.P. Morrell of New Orleans.
Of the Senate bills included in the score card was one the business lobby opposed that would have mandated any employer with 15 or more workers pay male and female employees equally for "the same or substantially similar work."
The bill was later amended to only include state workers, a moot point since the state Constitution already includes such provisions for state workers, and was signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal on June 19.
Another bill to delay the controversial Compass teacher evaluation system for one year, which LABI opposed, is also found on the score card. It was ultimately halted in the Senate Education Committee and lawmakers who voted against it received extra points.
Another education bill included in the score card, this time supported by LABI, would have created a task-force to determine different levels of higher education funding based on colleges' "performance" on key metrics, such as retention and graduation rates.
However, colleges that favored STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) majors that would increase the "potential earning power" of graduates would also have received more state funding. The bill was killed on the House floor.
Sen. Morrell said he wasn't surprised at his low score this year, as he's been consistently ranked middle to bottom, and stands by the votes he made this session.
"If you are going to tell me voting that women should be paid equally -- that that's a bad thing -- then I'm OK with that," Morrell said, referring to support of the "equal pay for equal work" legislation.
On the higher education funding bill Morrell said it failed because it was "full of problems that came out during the course of session."
"I'm happy with all the votes I made. and I think my constituents are happy with all the votes I made this session," he said, adding he authored other business-friendly legislation this year, including one that place fewer time restrictions on businesses applying for tax exemptions.
Rep. James of Baton Rouge echoed Morrell's remarks, noting his three-way tie with Geymann and Cox for a whopping score of "zero" was two-fold: first, a foot injury during a legislative football game kept him away for some key votes; second, he too is a habitually low scorer with LABI.
"I'm not concerned about the LABI score," James said. "It's not indicative of my support for business."
James then made reference to the business group's recent announcement that former Jindal aide Stephen Waguespack would be taking over LABI's presidency this year: "I hope the new leadership that they have would grade us on true business issues and not things they pushed this year through Gov. Jindal."
Even Sen. Claitor, who received a perfect score from the group, took issue with the methodology not only of the LABI score card but of one previously released by the conservative Christian group the Louisiana Family Forum.
"These scorecards are baffling," Claitor tweeted Wednesday. "First I score higher than (state sen.) Gerald Long (R-Winnfield) on family, then higher than (state Sen. Jack) Donahue (R-Mandeville) on business."
See the breakdown of the full score card below.
Lauren McGaughy is a state politics reporter based in Baton Rouge. She can be reached at lmcgaughy@nola.com or on Twitter at @lmcgaughy.