Louisiana legislators open their 2013 fiscal session at noon today, facing a number of key financial and other issues.

Gov. Bobby Jindal wants to eliminate state income taxes, budget reformers want to get a better handle on state finances, colleges and universities want more control over tuition, gun rights advocates want stronger laws on the books and education reformers want to rewrite laws rejected by the courts.

The nine-week session will put the governor’s plan to swap income taxes for higher sales and other taxes on the back burner until lawmakers get a financial analysis from their Legislative Fiscal Office. Jindal wants to raise state sales taxes from 4 to 6.25 percent, apply sales taxes to new services and raise the cigarette tax in order to replace $3 billion that would be lost with elimination of income taxes.

While waiting for those numbers, lawmakers will devote their energies to handling the more than 900 bills prefiled by senators and representatives. Legislators will have until April 17 to file no more than five additional bills that are local, special or fiscal in nature.

Political observers will be watching developments closely after a recent poll indicated Jindal’s job approval rating has dipped to 38 percent from previous highs approaching 70 percent. Pollsters said citizens are unhappy with the governor over his privatization of charity hospitals, his education reform bills enacted last year that were rejected by the courts and his drastic cuts to higher education.

A group of Republican House members want to streamline the state’s budgeting process and move away from approving the budget at the last minute. Dubbed the “Fiscal Hawks,” the legislators have filed bills seeking to reform the system by which the budget is drawn up, debated and enacted.

Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Moss Bluff, is a leader in the Budget Reform Coalition. He has filed a trio of bills aimed at improving the budgeting process. They outline the budget responsibilities of the Revenue Estimating Conference and the legislative auditor. Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, is another key player in the reform effort.

Higher education leaders are concerned about budget cuts totaling $650 million since Jindal took office in 2008. Tuition has been raised to close some of the gap, but university spokesmen say it hasn’t been enough. They support a bill by Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, that would give tuition authority to the four management boards that supervise higher education in the state. Speaker of the House Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles, is a co-sponsor. Both said it’s time to do away with the two-thirds vote of the Legislature that is required to raise tuition.

Colleges and universities are also worried that $490 million in funding for the new year beginning July 1 is dependent on things that may not happen. If the one-time money doesn’t materialize, that would necessitate an additional 19 percent cut in higher education budgets.

Louisiana has given citizens extensive gun rights under current law, but more are planned for debate during the session. Those bills would create lifetime concealed carry permits, try to circumvent any federal gun control laws that might be enacted, allow off-duty and retired police officers to carry weapons in bars and restaurants and permit off-duty law enforcement personnel to carry firearms on school campuses.

Education reform measures enacted in 2012 have been rejected by state courts, and appeals are pending in the state Supreme Court. Sponsors of that legislation have prefiled new bills in the event those are eventually rejected by the high court. The bills deal with teacher tenure and teacher evaluation, school boards and superintendents and school vouchers that pay for tuition at private and parochial schools. Other legislators have filed bills trying to slow down the education reform effort.

Jindal has said the state won’t participate in the expanded Medicaid program set up by President Obama’s Affordable Care Act that would benefit some 400,000 uninsured state residents. Some legislators and others are upset with the governor’s decision, and it could become a topic of debate during the session.

Rep. Simone Champagne, R-Erath, will try again this year to establish term limits for six statewide elected officials — lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer and commissioners of insurance and agriculture. The governor is limited to two consecutive terms, and Champagne wants to limit the others to no more than three consecutive terms.

Sen. Elbert Guillory, D-Opelousas, will try again to reform the state’s retirement systems. His measures would increase employee retirement contributions and the number of months of salary used to calculate pension benefits. The additional 3 percent contributions would pay for automatic cost-of-living increases for retirees every two years. Those changes would only apply to the Louisiana State Employees Retirement System and the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana.

LASERS has endorsed legislation that would delay implementation of a new cash balance retirement system created last year for new state employees for one year to July 1, 2014. It was the only retirement reform measure Jindal could pass at last year’s session.

Reps. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, and Bob Hensgens, R-Abbeville, are two one of the sponsors of a bill that would force changes in a new rule that splits the state’s high school football playoff system. Seabaugh said he has talked with legislators who don’t like the new system because “all of the religious-based schools were segregated out…”

The 281 juvenile inmates in state prisons serving life sentences for murder would be affected by legislation that would rewrite sentencing statutes. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that automatic life sentences for youths violate the 8th Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The high court justices said state laws must contain some possibility of parole.

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