BATON ROUGE — The House Commerce Committee passed bills this morning to create a formal process for public documentation of the state's major economic development deals, to allow the Legislative Auditor to review all the fund accounts kept by the Louisiana race horsemen's association and to eliminate testing requirements for people who want to obtain a retail florist license.
Rep. Wayne Waddell, R-Shreveport, won passage of three measures that he had developed in cooperation with Department of Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret. They essentially would require the agency to report regularly on the uses and impact of the state's Mega-Project Development Fund and Rapid Response Fund, which are pots of money the state has set aside to offer as part of incentive packages to businesses to create or save jobs.
Waddell withdrew consideration of a bill that would have required the agency to reveal details of pending projects before they are announced. Moret said Louisiana would be at a competitive disadvantage to other states if it had to give up information on economic development projects before decisions are made to go ahead with the deals.
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