Louisiana Senate Defeats, Then Passes HB 865, CATS Implementation Bill

May 21, 2012 0 Comments

BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Senate defeated the CATS bill 18-18 early Tuesday evening. Then, moments later, the Senate suspended the rules, reconsidered the vote, and passed the bill 20-15.

20 votes is the minimum vote required to pass a bill.

Three Republicans flip-flopped on the bill — voting against it the first time and for it the second time. They provided the margin of victory.

The three are Sens. Page Cortez, Jonathan Perry, and Ronnie Johns, all of Southwest Louisiana.

Why would these Senators change their votes? It is a local bill, and a majority of the East Baton Rouge Parish legislative delegation was against this bill, as were 100% of the Republican House and Senate members from East Baton Rouge.

The bill turns over $173 million of our hard-earned tax dollars to a left-wing group called Together Baton Rouge. The bill provides that Together Baton Rouge would help nominate the members of the Capital Area Transit System Board of Directors, and the Metro Council would have to choose from among their nominees — not ordinary citizens of the parish and certainly not conservative businessmen and businesswomen.

Powerful special interest groups and high paid law firms lobbied for this bill. Why? Taxbusters, the Tea Party, the Republican Party of East Baton Rouge Parish, and the Republican Party of Louisiana lobbied against it.

Why did these three Republican senators change their votes and insure the passage of this terrible bill? The bill now goes back to the House.

Please call your state representatives and ask them to vote against HB 865. Call 225-342-6945. Photo: Sen. Jonathan Perry who changed his votes from no to yes and passed the CATS Tax Implementation Bill Tuesday night.