2015 House Notes Week 3

HOUSE NOTES
Louisiana House of Representatives

Communications Office
2015 Regular Session
Week Three, May 1, 2015
The House had a busy third week of

the session with 399 House bills introduced.
The full House passed 100.
The following are highlights of some
of the issues considered this week.
COASTAL PROTECTION
*
House Bill 339, pending House final
passage, provides that the Coastal Protection
and Restoration Authority may use its own
resources for satisfying any mitigation
requirements.
*
passage, changes the approval authority from
the secretary of the Department of Natural
Resources to the executive director of the
Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority
to purchase land for integrated coastal
protection projects.
DISABLED ADULT CHILDREN
*
passage, extends child support to adult
children with disabilities.
The proposed law would provide for
the extension of child support to unmarried
children who are incapable of self-support and
who require substantial care and personal
supervision because of a mental or physical
disability. HB204 provides that the disability
shall not include substance abuse or addiction.
EDUCATION
*
passage, establishes the Able Account
Authority within the Department of
Education, and provides the authority to
administer the ABLE Account Savings
Program.
The "ABLE Account" is a special
savings account for financing certain qualified
expenses of persons with disabilities.
ENTERPRISE ZONE TAX CREDITS
*
passage, limits eligibility for Enterprise Zone
Program sales tax rebates and income tax
credits to all retail and restaurants with 50 or
fewer employees in parishes with populations
over 75,000.
HB466 also lowers the employee
threshold from 101 to 51 for retail eligibility
limited to groceries and pharmacies, and
disallows restaurants with more than 50
employees.
*
passage, adds retail businesses assigned a
North American Industry Classification Codes
Code of 722 to the list of retail businesses
eligible for rebates and tax credits provided
for in the Enterprise Zone Program.
FILM TAX CREDITS
*
passage, caps the annual amount of motion

picture investor income tax credits the office
and the secretary may certify each calendar
year at $200 million beginning July 1, 2015.
*
passage, establishes a $150 million annual cap
on motion picture investor income tax credits,
beginning January 1, 2016.
*
passage, would cap the motion picture income
tax credits at $226 million per year, beginning
July 1, 2015.
FOSTER CARE
*
passage, adds the training topic called
"reasonable and prudent parent standard" to
the foster care training program approved by
the Department of Children and Family
Services (DCFS) and requires foster
caregivers to use the standard.
HB261 stipulates that a caregiver is
not liable for harm caused to a child who
participates in an activity, if the caregiver
acted according with reasonable and prudent
parent standard.
Finally, HB261 requires DCFS to
develop rules to implement the new law.
FUEL STORAGE INSPECTIONS
*
House Bill 834, a substitute for House
Bill 750, pending House final passage,
authorizes the Office of the State Fire Marshal
to inspect fuel tank installations that have a
capacity of at least 275 gallons and are located
within 100 feet of any one- or two-family
dwelling, hunting or fishing camp.
HB834 additionally allows the state
fire marshal to declare rules or regulations,
enforce repair or removal of dangerous fuel
tank installations and to charge a plan and
review fee.
FUNDING
*
passage, authorizes money from other sources
such as donations, appropriations or
dedications to be deposited in and credited
into the Workforce Training Rapid Response
Fund and requires public higher education
institutions to demonstrate a 25% private
match before receiving these funds.
*
passage, provides that interest earned on the
investment of monies in the Deepwater
Horizon Economic Damages Collection Fund
shall be credited to the fund and requires that
appropriations from the fund be made to the
Board of Regents to be distributed to higher
education.
HONEY
*
House Bill 79, which passed
unanimously in the House, exempts raw honey
prepared in the home from a food labeling
requirement in present law.
HB79 additionally provides that no
individual who prepares low-risk foods in the
home shall sell such foods unless he is
registered to collect any local sales and use
taxes applicable to the sale of such foods, and
has a current sales tax certificate issued to the
seller by the sales and use tax collector for the
parish in which the sales occur.
INCOME TAX CREDITS
*
passage, provides new eligibility requirements
for individual income tax credits for taxes
paid to another state.
Under this legislation, the credit for
Louisiana incomes taxes shall be limited to
the lesser of the proportional credit limitation
amount or the actual tax paid to the other
state.
The "proportional credit limitation
Page -2-
amount" means the amount of Louisiana

income tax that would have been imposed if
the income earned in the other state had been
earned in Louisiana. The credit is not allowed
for taxes paid to another state that allows such
a credit for nonresident filers in that state who
paid tax to their own state of residence.
INTERNET TAX
*
passage, expands the definition of "dealer" to
include persons who have certain substantial
relationships and similarities with Louisiana
retailers, transact business in a certain manner,
or who engage in business in Louisiana.
through the use of certain affiliated agents.
HB355 also changes the distribution of tax
collections to local taxing authorities from
annually to quarterly.
*
passage, provides for the definition of a dealer
for purposes of collection of sales and use
taxes due on sales made in Louisiana by a
remote dealer to include internet sales.
*
For purposes of sales tax collection,
House Bill 555, pending House final passage,
expands the definition of a dealer to include
internet sales.
Under the proposed law, any company
with an affiliated agent who sells the same or
similar products under the same or similar
name with a cumulative total of $50,000 in
sales of tangible personal property in one year
would be considered dealers.
These
companies would be obligated to collect and
remit sales tax on behalf of the state and local
governments, including internet transactions
mailed to the state.
JUDGES
*
passage, changes the composition of Election
Section 1 and Election Section 2 for the City
Court of Baton Rouge, and provides that three

judges shall be elected from Election Section
1 and two judges shall be elected from
Election Section 2.
*
passage, provides that elections to fill
judgeships for the City Court of Baton Rouge
shall be held from the entire territorial area of
the city rather than from election sections.
LABOR
*
The House Committee on Labor and
Industrial Relations approved House Bill 418,
which seeks to ban the practice of collecting
teacher and public employee union dues
through automatic payroll deductions.
LITTER CITATIONS
*
passage, doubles the amounts of all fines for
intentional littering, simple littering, gross
littering and commercial littering.
Additionally, HB33 distributes the
increase in fines to the retirement system of
the law enforcement agency that issued the
litter citation.
NATURAL RESOURCES
*
passage, requires the Wildlife & Fisheries
Commission to use management targets to
ensure a sustainable population of black drum,
sheepshead and flounder.
*
passage, creates additional penalties for the
illegal taking of oysters from leased acreage.
NON-STATE ENTITY PROJECTS
*
Under the provisions of House Bill
212, pending House final passage, the Joint
Legislative Committee on Capital Outlay shall
receive the list of state and non-state entity
recommendations from the Division of
Page -3-
Administration and shall have discretion to

either approve or make changes to the list.
Only projects which received approval
from the Joint Legislative Committee on
Capital Outlay shall be submitted to the State
Bond Commission for consideration of lines
of credit.
RETIREMENT
*
passage, changes the minimum age for
optional participation in the Louisiana State
Employees' Retirement System from 60 to 62
for new hires in state systems.
SEX EDUCATION
*
passage, requires Orleans Parish public
schools to offer sex education instruction to
grades 7 through 12, and may offer such
instruction to all students in grades 3 through
6.
SOLAR TAX CREDITS
*
passage, repeals the solar energy systems tax
credit for leased systems and thermal systems,
and lowers the maximum credit amount to
$10,000 for eligible systems and limits
financing to 48 months. HB779 also limits a
site to a single credit, specifies necessary
claim documentation, including notarized
statement of system size, and details
equipment not eligible for the credit.
*
passage, changes the amount of the solar tax
credit for a system purchased by a homeowner
to a maximum of $10,000 per system.
Additionally, HB817 caps leased
credits at $20 million per year in FY 15, FY16
and FY 17, specifies necessary claim
documentation and details equipment not
eligible for the credit.
*
passage, would eliminate the solar tax credit
program on July 1, 2015.
TAX/CORPORATE INCOME
*
passage, removes the three-year carryback
provisions for the net operating loss deduction
when calculating corporate income taxes.
*
passage, requires corporations to add-back
otherwise deductible interest expenses and
costs incurred in connection with transactions
with one or more related members.
*
passage, provides that the method for
determination of income subject the tax shall
be the" unitary business principle" and
provides for various methods of determining
the apportionable income of corporations and
certain groups of corporations.
TAXES
*
House Concurrent Resolution 8,
pending House floor action, suspends 1
percent of the 4 percent sales tax on steam,
water, electric power or energy and natural
gas. This suspension shall become effective
upon adoption of this resolution and shall
extend through the sixtieth day after final
adjournment of the 2016 Regular Session.
*
pending House floor action, suspends the
exemptions for 1% of state sales and use tax
that shall become effective upon adoption of
this resolution and shall extend through the
sixtieth day after final adjournment of the
2016 Regular Session.
*
pending House floor action, suspends annual
state sales tax holidays until 60 days after
adjournment of the 2016 Regular Session.
*
House Bill 549, pending House floor
Page -4-
action, suspensions and special rates for

various types of mineral production activity
subject to severance taxes from July 1, 2015
through June 30, 2017.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS/PUBLIC
SAFETY
*
passage, requires commercial mobile service
providers and telecommunications carriers to
disclose call location information to law
enforcement agencies during emergency
situations.
TOBACCO TAX
*
House Bill 119, pending House
Appropriations, increases the cigarette tax
from 36 per pack to 68 per pack. Taxes on
all other tobacco products would remain
unchanged. The increase is estimated to raise
$67 million per year.
VETERANS
*
Under present law, a "qualifying
disability" is defined to mean 100%
permanent total disability rating or permanent
and total unemployability disability rating as
determined by the U.S. Dept. of Veterans
Affairs and certified by the secretary for the
La. Dept. of Veterans Affairs in a final
adjudication of the initial rating decision.
House Bill 425 adds a prohibition that
the initial rating decision cannot apply to a
federal rating decision predating service in the
La. National Guard.
Page -5-

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HOUSE NOTES

Louisiana House of Representatives

The House had a busy third week of

passage, caps the annual amount of motion

amount" means the amount of Louisiana

Court of Baton Rouge, and provides that three

Administration and shall have discretion to

action, suspensions and special rates for

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