Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Louisiana Farm Bureau is constantly working protect and promote Louisiana's farmers, ranchers, and rural residents. This podcast exists to share stories of those farmers with interviews about their farms and issues important to them. Here, we will also share about the work Farm Bureau is doing on their behalf on issues related to public policy from the parish level all the way to the halls of Congress in D.C.
00;00;05;12 - 00;00;26;05
Speaker 1
Hey, everybody. It's Karl Wiggers here at Louisiana Farm Bureau. And I'm joined now with Joe Mapes, Louisiana Farm Bureau lobbyist. And Joe, it's spring is in the air, which means that Capitol building is about to get busy. Session's coming when a session coming. And what what does this year's session look like? I know that's a very loaded question, but what's the session look like coming up?
00;00;26;18 - 00;00;50;29
Speaker 2
Right. Well, it starts April 10th and ends June 8th. It's a 60 day session, Carl, instead of at 85. Every other year, we have a fiscal session and that's a shorter period of time, 60 days. And supposedly we're only supposed to deal with pieces of legislation related to the state's budget, but we pass the bill. Some years ago that allow us to deal with any other subject matter.
00;00;50;29 - 00;00;55;22
Speaker 2
So we'll have a lot of subjects up there to deal with that will pertain to agribusiness.
00;00;55;22 - 00;01;08;12
Speaker 1
When you say fiscal year, meaning the state's budget, is that is that kind of where a lot of it stems from in trying to balance it and trim the budget and make sure funding is for these pet projects? And is that kind of what you mean by fiscal?
00;01;08;12 - 00;01;45;03
Speaker 2
Yeah, and that's a great question because legislators help make those decisions. And prior to this fiscal session last year, they were having meetings considering removing some of the exclusions and exemptions that industries and professions have that are on the books now. And part of those discussions in committee were the exemptions and exclusions related to agriculture. So, well, you know, when you're looking at a budget as a legislator or as a governor, and this government has been great to us, but they look at all industries and all professions and they try to, you know, trim up those budgets and add money to the state's budget.
00;01;45;06 - 00;01;51;10
Speaker 1
And I mean, what exemptions are we adding taxes, cutting taxes? Is that kind of the same stuff that's also going to be discussed?
00;01;51;15 - 00;01;55;12
Speaker 2
Well, yeah, And that's that's what they would like to do. But you can't just.
00;01;55;18 - 00;01;57;11
Speaker 1
Add taxes or cut taxes.
00;01;57;11 - 00;02;12;06
Speaker 2
No tax reform in general. But but, you know, and it would it would probably involve more shifting of taxes, then adding or taking away, you know, just like I said, revamping, you know, not my job, though. So I'm.
00;02;12;06 - 00;02;36;13
Speaker 1
Going fortunately. Right. Right. So this year is also an election year. We've talked about this off camera some. But governor, election is a big one. But it's also term limits. A lot of a lot of our state reps and senators are rolling out as they're hit, hitting their term limits. How will all of this shape, this fiscal session, is it going to be it's going to be crazy because of that or.
00;02;36;24 - 00;02;58;19
Speaker 2
Actually in the in the house, you're going to have 15 races that are open out of 105. And in the Senate, you're going to have seven that are open and I think two that aren't returning to say open term limited, the 15 in the House and then seven in the Senate, and then two that aren't running. So 15 and nine I think you got 26 there.
00;02;58;19 - 00;03;01;03
Speaker 1
So right now I can't do math.
00;03;01;03 - 00;03;21;26
Speaker 2
24 they have 24. So we cut that part out. But anyway, the the truth of it is that the election year should have an effect on issues because politicians want to get reelected. And to do that, they need to have friends on both sides of every issue. So they're not going to want to file little pieces of legislation that are divisive.
00;03;22;03 - 00;03;41;26
Speaker 2
Now, of those ones that are term limited, that aren't coming back, they could have pet issues that they've been you know, that's been important to them for the entire 11 and a half years they've been here. And so they could have a scorched earth policy on the way out the door and say, I'm going to deal with this issue, you know, one way or the other and file a piece of legislation that could be divisive.
00;03;42;04 - 00;03;52;14
Speaker 2
But again, I'm going to go back to the election cycle and say that both Houses, the Senate and the House would not want to engage in divisive legislation. And in an election year like this.
00;03;52;20 - 00;04;23;24
Speaker 1
Bigger picture, we're talking governor races on its way. And I know there's a lot in the field on the Republican side. I think only I know of only one in the House. And you make it a mess in the studio, Joe. Okay, I'll forgive you. But thinking of governor race, thinking of just big picture politics that are in the deep politics will things that happened in the capital during the session be maybe posturing or positioning for that, that major race that's coming?
00;04;23;25 - 00;04;41;05
Speaker 2
Well, certainly. And you'll have gubernatorial candidates that will try and influence issues on the House and the Senate floor during the Louisiana legislative session. And so they'd like to take credit for that out on the campaign trail. And so, yeah, I see. And some of their job, some of these candidates, their jobs involve working with the legislature to begin with.
00;04;41;05 - 00;05;02;28
Speaker 2
So, yeah, they'll be involved there. But the main thing to us cause that you have a candidate or governor that finally gets elected that understands agribusiness, right? You know, it's not just growing crops and, you know, raisin commodities. It's also doing everything else that every other business and industry has to deal with. Government personnel, you know, taxes, transportation with a.
00;05;02;28 - 00;05;04;24
Speaker 1
Major difference that we don't get to set our.
00;05;04;24 - 00;05;08;16
Speaker 2
Price. That's right. We're price takers and they're right. Price makers.
00;05;08;16 - 00;05;37;07
Speaker 1
So we're a lot like a lot of businesses with that exception. Yeah. So that's good that you bring that up, right as Farm Bureau members, as people sitting on the sidelines, so to speak, that aren't going to be in here writing legislation. What should we be aware of and be looking for over these next, I guess, 75 days or no, 89, 90 days since we're still a month out from session, what should we be looking for and preparing for?
00;05;37;12 - 00;05;59;15
Speaker 2
Well, first of all, please sign up for the Voter Voice network, which is a grassroots communication system. It's an email system that uses your address and your zip code to connect you with your constituent legislator. And we write the message here at Farm Bureau. We send it out in your name with the Farm Bureau logo, but it comes from you to your legislators personally.
00;05;59;15 - 00;06;10;07
Speaker 2
So it's not seen as spam. It's a highly effective tool. So the answer to your question is the first thing is sign up and then stay tuned to that and we make it easy for you. You just hit the submit button.
00;06;10;23 - 00;06;32;25
Speaker 1
And you bring that up. And for some it could look like a form letter that's like, Oh, okay, cool. I got this letter already 17 times. But for farmers sitting in a tractor that's valuable to be able to, to have that tool, it's like I don't have time to go to Baton Rouge. I don't have time to sit down and write this letter and put a stamp on something and or write an email out like you've already done the work.
00;06;32;25 - 00;06;38;28
Speaker 1
And we've as Farm Bureau have done the work to say, Hey, here's our ask. And putting it in that farmer's hand was.
00;06;38;28 - 00;06;54;22
Speaker 2
Seen as a favor to the legislators, quite frankly, because they want to know that they're doing the right thing for their farmers, you know, in their area. And so if they have it on a piece of paper that says, you know, I know how, you know, our Wiggers fields back home about this, and I know his family, we go to church together.
00;06;55;01 - 00;07;08;15
Speaker 2
And it's important to know that because otherwise they're going to vote another way. And they'd be able to tell you, Carl, but I never knew you never told me. So we need to at least educate them to give them the right to make that decision, you know.
00;07;08;15 - 00;07;20;18
Speaker 1
Well, you talked about you just said this. A lot of these guys and women, men and women, they're going to be in this building or right now in the districts, they're right now at home. They go to church. How important.
00;07;20;18 - 00;07;20;28
Speaker 2
The same.
00;07;20;28 - 00;07;31;29
Speaker 1
School, how important is it for for farmers and just for anyone to be engaging with them before they come to Baton Rouge to let them know, you know, things that are issues that matter to them?
00;07;31;29 - 00;07;51;18
Speaker 2
Yeah. When they come to Baton Rouge, think about it. On average, we have, you know, 2 to 3000 pieces of legislation filed and then thousands of amendments. Okay. So they've got people and each one of those amendments would have the effect of law if it passed. And they've got people pulling them in a hundred different direction, you know, not just lobbyists, but staffers and other legislators.
00;07;51;18 - 00;08;05;00
Speaker 2
If they can come to town with some preexisting knowledge of what's important to agribusiness, agriculture and Farm Bureau, that's going to allow them to stand in this, you know, sea of craziness and represent Farm Bureau and do the right thing.
00;08;05;01 - 00;08;13;25
Speaker 1
Right. That's awesome. Well, I know it's going to be a busy with fiscal matters. It's going to be a busy 60 day session. You're going to keep us up to date on everything going on, right?
00;08;13;25 - 00;08;28;03
Speaker 2
Oh, yes, most definitely. You know, I'd love to come back and talk about this and make sure that everybody understands that what we're doing here is we're making sure that Farm Bureau and agriculture has a spot at the table, Carl, because, you know, if there's no spot at the table for agriculture, you know where we are.
00;08;28;04 - 00;08;53;21
Speaker 1
We're here on the menu. There you go. We'll be back weekly, maybe every ten days or something like that, as quick as often as we can. As often as there's something important to talk about, we'll be back here on social media will be putting it on our TV show. And this week, Louisiana agriculture will be getting the message out of what's happening in the capital over this session and make sure that that you're informed of all the issues that are going on in the work that Farm Bureau is doing on your behalf as a farmer, as a rural resident.
00;08;54;01 - 00;09;07;12
Speaker 1
So, Joe, thank you for being here. Thank you for the work you're doing in this big, gloomy building. Sometimes. But anyways, stay engaged. Stay involved. Sign up for voter voice and we'll see you next time. Here on grassroots government.