House committee to vote today on free ticket ban
Times-Picayune (excerpt)

The House Committee on House and Governmental Affairs delayed until today a vote on Senate Bill 3, a measure to prohibit legislators and other public officials from getting free golf rounds and free tickets to sporting and cultural events.

After Senate President Joel Chaisson II, D-Destrehan, was peppered Monday with several questions about the definition of cultural events, the panel, at the suggestion of its chairman, Rep. Rick Gallot, D-Ruston, deferred a vote to give committee staff a chance to draft amendments to clarify language in the bill. Gallot and Reps. Noble Ellington, D-Winnsboro, and Jane Smith, R-Bossier City, asked whether high schools that commonly offer lawmakers free tickets to events would be prohibited.

House Speaker Pro Tem Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, asked about fundraisers for nonprofit groups that ask her to attend as their guest. "It would take all of my $16,800 (legislative) salary to attend these events and pay for them," she said. Gallot said he expects the bill to come up at the start of today's meeting, which begins at 10 a.m.