Questions About What Comes Ahead

BY JERRY “TRUCK” GISCLAIR, STATE REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 54

Every morning, I love to go and drink coffee with my constituents. We sit and we talk for hours about not just politics, but other things going on around our community. I enjoy those times. It gives me a chance to listen to the things that people are concerned about and what’s affecting their day-to-day lives.

I’d like to answer some questions about the upcoming session and some things I’ve most proud of so far as I continue my political career.

What are some goals for the session?

I pre-filed a bill dealing with wetlands mitigation which would allow the entity that’s doing the damage to the wetlands – instead of buying into a mitigation bank for restoration – the funds would be established to keep the money in the parish the damage is done. Money would go to a CPRA project in that specific parish. For example, in my district, we have water that gets to our South Lafourche Levee in some areas. The terracing projects that they’ve done are working. But if I had half a million dollars for mitigation, I would want to invest in one of those projects, instead of buying acres of wetlands elsewhere that has little to do with my parish. I’ve been talking to some of the local levee district directors and they love it. They obviously are supporting it. I’m hoping to have their backing and their testimony on how it can affect the parishes and surrounding areas. It would help their work greatly knowing that money is coming forth where they’ve got troubled area.

What has it been like working with Gov. Edwards, compared to Gov. Jindal?

Governor John Bel Edwards and I were sworn in at 2008 at the same time when he was serving in the Louisiana House of Representatives. I served with him on some committees. He’s just a very impressive person. As a state legislator, I’ve been able to address some of the needs we’ve had – in emergency situations in face to face meetings. He’s always been there for me. I didn’t have those same opportunities with Gov. Bobby Jindal. In all fairness to Gov. Jindal, he was always kind. He remembered everything about my family whenever we discussed personal conversations and everything. The guy is a genius. I’ll always say that to this day. But Governor Edwards, to me, is a person that knows Louisiana a little better. He knows how to serve the people a lot better. If given a chance, he will turn the state around.

The cuts have come so heavy the past few years. How do you all plan to deal with that again?

For the budget, it’s become a fight between the Republicans and the Democrats and there’s some sensitive negotiations and we’re going to be in trouble if we don’t have a special session. We will have the regular session, but as soon as that gavel hits in June, we’re going to have to go into special session because the fiscal cliff is here – whether we realize it or not. Everybody hears about this $1.4 billion dollar budget cliff. It is real. It is coming. If we’re going to have to maintain services, unfortunately, healthcare and education are unprotected services and they’re going to get cut the most. My goals are, I’m hoping we can come to an agreement with the Republicans and get rid of a lot of these exemptions given to these companies to help us out. I was shocked to learn that in the current 4-cent sales tax, there are over 100 types of exemptions on those 4 pennies. We need to clean that up. When you do that, you’re going to find that billion dollar hole will disappear and we can start restoring education and health care again.

What are some things you’re most proud of so far from your time serving the people locally?

I think for me, the first thing is realizing that you’re filling in some big shoes. Mitch Theriot, Loulan Pitre, those guys were attorneys and they represented this area well. But I took over and I’m responsible for 44,000 people in my district. To me, the level of representation and the service is what we’ve done. We’ve helped the seafood industry. We have to say them, because we’ve helped shrimping and oyster industries as well as the crabbing industry. There’s a lot more of the seafood industry that’s still active that people don’t see. It gets very technical when you start looking at things like regulations on crab traps. I worked closely with Wildlife and Fisheries and I’ve sponsored several bills to try and help them out by increasing the size of the escape ring. Because of that, what you saw was a better product coming out of that industry from Louisiana. As a state representative, you work with these departments and a lot of my bills are not things I try and dream up that I’ve been wanting to do my whole life. These are bills introduced on behalf of some departments based on complaints I’ve heard from people in those departments – people in need. I’ve worked well with Wildlife and Fisheries, the people in Natural Resources, the Department of Transportation and also the Ag Department. I’m coming from a blue and white collar perspective. I am coming to help our people. And, of course, I’m proud to say I’ve raised the level of service to our veterans. That is a part of my life, that as a Vietnam Vet myself, is one of the most important things to me besides highways and natural resources. I’m the vice chairman on the committee for veteran’s affairs. I take my work seriously. The past 10 years, the level of service to our local veterans has gone way up and that makes me really happy.

We have a lot of work to do. I have several bills forthcoming. I’m looking at Foster Care, our wetlands and more things dealing to our veterans. It’s going to be tough, but I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be a tough battle and balancing act for us to not raise taxes, while getting over this fiscal cliff.

But we’re here working for you – the people of the Bayou Area – to help represent you the best way we know how. •