Notes and quotes from the Louisiana Legislature

The House narrowly rejected a bill that would allow bars and restaurants to hold the popular Texas Hold ‘Em poker tournaments n the second year in a row the measure has failed in the House amid opposition by Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

The House voted 48-46 for the bill by Rep. Warren Triche, but it needed 53 votes n a majority of the full House n for it to pass. Triche, D-Thibodaux, can bring the bill up again.

The tournaments have been the subject of dispute because the state’s top liquor regulator says they violate Louisiana’s gambling laws, but many lawmakers say they don’t view the poker games as gambling as long as the bars and restaurants don’t get a cut of the wagering.

Blanco opposes the bill (House Bill 484) as an expansion of gambling.

Triche’s bill would allow the businesses to hold poker tournaments once a week for people at least 21 years old as long as the owner doesn’t get a part of the proceeds and doesn’t charge an entrance fee. The bars and restaurants wouldn’t be able to operate the tournament, furnish supplies like cards and poker chips, or advertise beyond their regular business signs.

Orleans Parish is excluded from the bill.

Property insurance companies should use hurricane modeling software that takes into account a century’s worth of meteorological data, not shorter-term models, the Senate voted.

The 100-year models, widely used in the insurance industry to determine hurricane risk, produce lower risk estimates and lower rates for homeowners.

Sen. Art Lentini, R-Metairie, introduced the bill after press reports report that at least two insurers, Hartford and ANPAC, used a modeling system that uses five years of weather data to determine hurricane risk. The companies won rate increases partly based on the five-year modeling.

Jim Donelon, state insurance commissioner, has ordered insurers to stop using such modeling.

Lentini argued that a five-year model is skewed because of the two major storms that hit Louisiana in 2005.

Senators sent the bill to the House with a vote of 31-2. Voting against were Sens. Noble Ellington, D-Winnsboro; and Mike Smith, D-Winnfield.

People in the military and military veterans would get a bit of an advantage in getting homeowners insurance in Louisiana, under a bill approved 21-9 Wednesday by the state Senate.

The bill (Senate Bill 139) by Sen. Derrick Shepherd, D-Marrero, would require companies that sell auto insurance in Louisiana n and also sell homeowners insurance, even if not in Louisiana n to offer homeowners insurance to military personnel and retirees in the state.

More senators objected to the bill a day earlier, but many changed their votes last Wednesday when Shepherd brought it up for a second vote. It heads next to the House for debate.

In other legislative action:

n The House approved a measure (House Bill 186) that would bar certain convicted felons from owning any dog that has a history of unprovoked attacks on people. Rep. Warren Triche, D-Thibodaux, said his bill was modeled after one in Illinois that seeks to prevent the use of such dogs to commit crimes. The bill moves to the Senate.

n The House unanimously agreed to a bill (House Bill 266) that would require lawmakers seeking dollars for festivals, local museums and other pet projects to provide more details about those spending requests. It would apply to any request for an entity that is a non-governmental organization. The bill heads next to the Senate.

Louisiana’s food banks asked lawmakers last Tuesday to use $15 million in state surplus money to buy food for the poor, another in a long list of requests to the House Appropriations Committee.”We are facing a hunger crisis here in this state,” said Natalie Jayroe, with Second Harvest of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, which serves 23 south Louisiana parishes including Terrebonne, Lafourche and St. Mary.

Representatives of the Louisiana Food Bank Association said food costs have gone up, the number of needy state residents has increased since Hurricane Katrina, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has reduced the free food it provides to the state.

The food bank association proposes using state dollars to buy food from Louisiana farmers, fishermen and vendors n so the money would help feed the poor while also helping Louisiana food growers. The money would buy 15 million pounds of food, the association estimates.

The state currently doesn’t provide money to the local food banks.

Rep. John Alario, chairman of the House committee, said lawmakers would like to help the food banks and would “crunch the numbers” to see how much money they could offer. The committee is combing through many requests for funding. The state has more than $2 billion in unspent cash from the last and current fiscal years.

The House rejected a bill Thursday that would have added an average of 20 cents to Louisiana utility bills so that the state’s utility regulator can cover increased costs.

Rep. Gil Pinac said the Public Service Commission, which regulates the state’s utility companies, pays more in rent since being forced by the Legislature to move into a new state office building in Baton Rouge.

Pinac, chairman of the House Commerce Committee, sponsored a bill (House Bill 451) that would allow the regulating body to cover the new costs by increasing the fees the PSC receives from utilities n a cost that the companies pass on to consumers.

The bill, which needed support from two-thirds of the 105-member House, failed on a vote of 55-38. Pinac, D-Crowley, could bring it up for another vote.

A bill aiming to help get universal health insurance coverage for children in Louisiana, pushed by Gov. Kathleen Blanco, received easy, unanimous passage last week from the House.

The bill by Rep. Monica Walker, D-Marksville, would create the Louisiana Children and Youth Health Insurance Program. The program would offer insurance coverage to children under the age of 19 whose families earn too much money to qualify through the children’s health insurance program covered by Medicaid.

Parents could buy into either the state children’s health insurance program in Medicaid, also known as LaCHIP, or receive state subsidies to buy private insurance coverage, on a sliding fee scale based on their income levels, under Walker’s bill. The costs of the buy-in for the insurance haven’t yet been determined, according to health officials.

Financial estimates of the legislation said it would cost the state about $7 million in the upcoming budget year and nearly $43 million by the fifth year. The federal government would provide matching funds for the program.

The House voted 103-0 for the bill (House Bill 542), sending it to the Senate for debate.