Forget dog days – get focused on serious election business

While the dog days of summer continue to roll along, it’s also clearly time to get focused on some serious business coming up soon. The first day of school is right around the corner so students can no longer ignore those summer reading assignments. Football season kicks off next month, and it’s time for players to report for practice and show their coaches how hard they worked in the off season. Qualifying for major statewide elections takes place in a few weeks and we, as voters, will soon be asked to make some serious decisions on the future of this state.

Have you done your election homework? If not, here is a quick primer.

This week, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) released it’s 2019 legislative scorecard, which is available online at http://labiscorecard.org/. We encourage everyone heading to the polls this fall to give it a read and put some thought to the issues addressed.

This past session marked the end of a tumultuous four-year term where much was debated but little accomplished. As predicted, the fiscal session that ran from April to June was largely overshadowed by the upcoming fall elections where 47 legislative seats will be vacated due to term limits, members will be retiring or shifting to the opposite chamber, and all statewide officials are on the ballot.

The 2019 election is monumental and will impact the future of Louisiana for decades. The next governor and legislature will be tasked with redrawing the electoral lines for offices such as Congress, the state Supreme Court, the Public Service Commission, and the legislature itself. Meanwhile, the state’s economy is at a tipping point with two consecutive years of significant population losses, low workforce participation rates, and employment numbers that lag the nation.

 

About Stephen Waguespack 26 Articles
Stephen Waguespack is the President and CEO of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI). As the state’s chamber of commerce and manufacturer’s association, LABI is the largest business advocacy group, representing more than 2,200 business members and 324,000 employees.

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