Walt Bennetti Says LA Legislature Had Hits And Misses This Session

Walt Bennetti of clickjefferson.com visited 'Mornings With Ken and Bernie' today and noted some 'hits' and some 'misses' in this Louisiana Legislative session.  According to Bennetti,

I was really disappointed with the legislative session this year.  I thought going in we expected so much.  We expected major reforms, we expected the Governor to use his political capital and get things done and it just never happened.  On the first day he pulled back his tax swap plan and just as we talked about abdicated authority to the legislature.

Even with the Governor's abdication of authority Bennetti said,

I have to say on the list of winners and losers when I actually looked at it, I know I'm going to get grief about some of these but I actually think Governor Jindal was a small winner.  The reason I say that is, no we didn't get the big tax swap plan, no we didn't get major reforms but the Governor did get a few things he wanted.  There's no Medicaid expansion despite what a lot of people in the Legislature wanted....They also got more money for education and more money for education vouchers.

Bennetti said he thought the people of Louisiana were winners in this Legislative session because the budget was wrapped up without the cost of a special session.  He also noted other winners included,

John Bell Edwards, the Democrat from Amite who announced prior the Legislative session that he was going to run for Governor...he raised his profile immensely.  Senator Elbert Guillory was another big winner.  He saw the writing on the wall and made history as the first black Senator since Reconstruction.

Listen to the interview:

To read more from Walt Bennetti visit clickjefferson.com.