Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Senate committee clears LED reorganization bill creating innovation fund, clarifying land authority
Summary
SB 161, a follow‑on to last year—s LED restructuring, was reported with amendments after testimony that the bill creates a non‑funded Louisiana Economic Development Innovation Fund, clarifies LED land purchase and sale authority, and consolidates several statutory offices under LED while revising board memberships.
Senate Commerce reported SB 161 with amendments after a full hearing on April 23.
Sen. Mizell, sponsor of SB 161, told the committee the bill—informally called "reorganization 2"—builds on last year—s LED restructure by creating the Louisiana Economic Development Innovation Fund, clarifying LED's authority to purchase, lease and sublease land, and absorbing certain statutory offices into the LED department. "This creates the Louisiana Economic Development Innovation Fund," Mizell said, noting the bill does not appropriate money to that fund in its current form.
Susan Bourgeois, Secretary of Louisiana Economic Development, described the bill as both "gap filling" and statutory cleanup. Bourgeois said the innovation fund is a placeholder only: "We're not putting money in it right now. This is not a funding request. This doesn't have a funding mechanism attached to it," she said. Bourgeois told…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
