And a plague descends upon Louisiana

No no, as of this morning, there are no reports of coronovirus cases in the state yet. This means we still don't have to cancel Jazzfest which may or may not be good news depending on how many Airbnbs you own. [UPDATE: Well halfway through typing this up I see that we have one now so ignore this joke]  Instead, today's top reason for existential dread is occasioned by the convening of the 2020 Louisiana Legislative Regular Session. May God have mercy on our souls.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana Legislature packed with dozens of new members starts its first lawmaking session of the term Monday, with a grab bag of topics for debate and none of the budget woes that preoccupied the last term.

Lawmakers will consider whether to legalize sports betting and recreational marijuana, whether to do away with Louisiana’s use of the death penalty or change the means of execution, how to spend a multimillion-dollar surplus and what approach they’ll try to combat high car insurance rates.

And they’ll do it without the financial gaps that became the primary focus of lawmakers and governors for a decade, after a tax deal brokered by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and the majority-Republican Legislature last term stabilized the budget picture.

*Record scratch*

Whoa hold up a sec there with all that surplus talk.  Have you seen the oil prices, lately? This isn't supposed to be a fiscal year but we could be digging deep into the budget anyway depending on how bad the panic gets. What to do, what to do?  Would you guess, make sure we hand out bigger corporate tax breaks with less local oversight?  If so then you do know this legislature pretty well already.

The preliminary media analysis of this session talk a lot about a new spirit of "cooperation."  The Governor has been reelected so Republicans won't be trying to undermine his agenda just for the sake of it.  The presumably more "moderate" candidate was elected Speaker. And, prior to the virus induced economic panic, the budget fight wasn't expected to be quite so intense.  But this is still the most right wing legislature elected in decades. And the Senate, which had been a moderating force in recent years, is now more firmly in Republican hands. So expect plenty of bad things on the agenda even if the struggle over each item is less dramatic.

The Governor seems resigned to this, in fact, surrendering on a few potential flash points in advance.  He's already reversed his own policy with regard to the industrial tax exemption. And had declined to seek a teacher pay raise before being goaded back into it by what was thought to be one of his most valued constituencies. He's more likely to dig in a little bit in the coming fight over "tort reform" which is likely to be the toughest fight of the session.  See this latest article in an ongoing Bayou Brief series for a preview of that.

Again, it's an extremely conservative legislature so be on the lookout for nuttiness. There's a bill in there to ban transgender high school students from sports teams, for example.  With the virus on everyone's minds, you would think this bill by Mandie Landry to help people vote by mail would be a good idea this year, but something tells me that's going to hit a wall in this House.

Meanwhile, Stephanie Hilferty wants to impose mandatory minimum jail sentences for car burglaries. We would have thought that retrograde approach to criminal justice was long since discredited. But, since the guy who wrote the 1994 mass incarceration bill is now the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, all that stuff is back in style.

Anyway, ready or not, the #LAlege is back.  Better make sure we've stocked enough disinfectant. They can be a nasty strain.