Gov. John Bel Edwards, whose transportation task force in December recommended a $700 million hike, said he was "extremely encouraged" by the committee vote.
The bill, if signed into law, would forbid the removal, renaming or adjustment of any military monument in the state, including Confederate monuments, unless a majority of voters in a city or parish approve them. The only way they could legally be removed under the legislation would be following a state-wide public vote. But he called it "problematic" in its current form. "It allows for the people to have their input in the decision to remove military monuments from the public spaces in which they live".
After the vote was called, the entire Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus walked off the House floor in protest.
On one side of the tense divide, there are those who are protecting the New Orleans civil war era monuments. It bars local governments and municipalities from removing plaques and statues for "military figures" and events, without a public vote.
Rep. Joseph Bouie, a New Orleans Democrat who is caucus chairman, urged the Senate to strike down Republican Rep. Thomas Carmody's proposal.
House Speaker Taylor Barras, who supported the bill, said he's concerned that the issue's divisiveness could impact other debates. The incidents came a week after nine black congregants at a Charleston, South Carolina, church, where killed in a racially motivated attack. Burnt in effigy, forever, is the symbol of Mayor Mitch Landrieu for up-ending what the monument protectors consider to be the loving civil society of New Orleans.
Senate committee wants Comey to testify
The Senate intelligence committee on Wednesday asked Comey to appear before the panel in both open and closed sessions. He said he would give the Federal Bureau of Investigation a week and then "if we need a subpoena, we'll do it".
That was the question asked by Representative Katrina Jackson during the bill's debate Monday night. The Liberty Monument was removed April 24 and the statue of Jefferson Davis was taken down May 11. He said its aim is not to preserve Confederate monuments so much as to give local residents a say in the issue.
One outraged voice was Rep. Gary Carter of New Orleans, who was incensed at what the state's GOP was trying to do, and let his colleagues know it.
New Orleans prohibits police officers from asking suspects about their immigration status. "Can't we just put this away?"
The governor said requiring an election before any war monument can be moved isn't feasible, arguing that many objects might need to be moved for reasons entirely unrelated to the monument's political significance.
"Today we take another step in defining our city not by our past but by our bright future", Mayor Landrieu said in a statement Tuesday, adding that the Beauregard statue was in the process of coming down.
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