Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser is worried that three bills aimed at keeping New Orleans’ Confederate monuments in place could die a quick death once the Louisiana Legislature opens on Monday (April 10), he told WVUE Fox 8. So Nungesser says he’s asking President Donald Trump for some help outside the Capitol, and is also consulting with lawyers from the Louisiana Attorney General’s office, the TV station reported.
“Some of the lawyers for the state are looking at it to see if the lieutenant governor’s office has any grounds. I know a lot of people are hanging their hat on the legislation in Baton Rouge,” Nungesser told Fox 8. “My concerns are the committees that those bills are being put in are not favorable committees for those bills to get out of committee and we need to be honest about that.”
Nungesser’s comments come as New Orleans is trying to close a funding gap on the Confederate monument removal project the City Council approved in December 2015. The plan to remove monuments of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard and Confederate President Jefferson Davis is short some $430,000 after a single bid came in more than three times the cost of the city’s $170,000 budget.
Bid to remove Confederate monuments exceeds city’s $170K budget
It’s not clear whether the city can accept a bid that is more than three times the size of the budget.
The bills Nungesser cites have not yet been referred to committee, but last year similar legislation was sent to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee chaired by New Orleans Democrat Karen Carter Peterson. That committee holds a Democratic majority, and the powerful Senate president, Republican John Alario of Westwego, often refers controversial bills there to die a quick death.
Confederate monuments could get constitutional protection
The bill would face an uphill battle in the Legislature but could gain traction if voters have their say, according to an LSU poll.
Chances for a bill in the House — state Rep. Thomas Carmody, R-Shreveport, has filed a Confederate monuments-related bill there — are also dim given Carmody’s bill last year died in committee. It’s unclear what chances a Carmody bill would have on the House floor, which is dominated by Republicans.
A second House bill would leave the question of removing Confederate monuments to voters, but that bill has an even more difficult hill to climb. The Louisiana Constitution requires a two-thirds majority vote in the House and Senate to propose constitutional amendments to voters.
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