In many ways the 2025 Legislative session was one of the most productive in recent years, as lawmakers made sweeping changes to targeted areas of state law and significantly reorganized key state agencies to improve their efficiency and performance.
Leaders for a Better Louisiana commends the Legislature for its work, particularly in areas focused on improving the state’s competitiveness, enhancing education and workforce opportunities, and bringing new jobs to the state.
We believe this session addressed many of the challenges that have held Louisiana back and set the stage for significant economic growth opportunities in the future. Specific highlights include:
- A significant overhaul of the Department of Transportation and Development aimed at transforming its operations, creating more efficiencies, and speeding up the implementation of important road construction and maintenance projects.
- Enhancing infrastructure improvements by adding more than $700 million to the Louisiana Transportation Infrastructure Fund.
- Continuing the reorganization of Louisiana Economic Development and creating the new High Impact Jobs Program
- Investing $150 million in the LED Site Investment and Infrastructure Improvement Fund. This fund is closely linked to the new LED strategic plan that Better Louisiana supported last year. Its funding represents the state’s largest ever investment in economic development site development and makes Louisiana significantly more competitive with other states.
- Adding another $122 million to fund other key economic development initiatives including the Rapid Response Fund for creating and retaining Louisiana jobs, a special marketing fund, and a fund to help support major events.
- Reorganizing areas of the Louisiana Workforce Commission and the Department of Children and Family Services to create a “one-door” system where individuals seeking job training will also have easier access to other support services to help ensure they are able to participate in the workforce.
- Creation of a streamlined procurement process to facilitate deferred maintenance projects on college campuses, $43 million for the Higher Education Campus Revitalization Fund for deferred maintenance and other initiatives, and continuation of a bond issuance program for capital projects on community college campuses.
- Creation of a new higher-tier TOPS awards designed to encourage Louisiana’s highest-performing students to continue their education at a Louisiana institution.
- Some progress in passing legal reforms to address the high cost of auto insurance in the state, though some key measures failed and the ultimate impact is uncertain.
Two constitutional amendments that were part of Amendment #2 that failed on the ballot in March also passed. One is part of a package of bills that liquidates three education trust funds, uses about $2 billion from those funds to pay off debt in the teachers’ retirement system, and utilizes the debt savings to fund a permanent teacher pay raise of $2,250 per year.
Another constitutional amendment provides a mechanism for local governments to voluntarily phase out, repeal or reduce the business inventory tax. This tax has been a longstanding obstacle in attracting new companies to Louisiana. Both of these amendments will be presented to voters next year.
Better Louisiana also played a lead role in the passage of two bills and two resolutions designed to enhance educational, training, and career opportunities for citizens:
- HB 533 combines two existing tax credits into a single credit for apprentices and interns and aligns them with the new work-based learning requirements in the state school accountability system. It is designed to encourage employers to expand work-based learning opportunities for more students and workers.
- SB 233 expands an existing tax credit for businesses that pay a portion of the costs for employee childcare. Its goal is to increase access to quality early learning experiences for children and address one of the critical workforce issues faced by employers.
- SCR 38 creates a task force to study ways to implement education-to-career counseling at Louisiana colleges to help connect students to career and job opportunities in Louisiana early in their studies. This is intended to retain talent in Louisiana after graduation to help address Louisiana’s challenges with outmigration.
- SCR 29 creates a task force to study Louisiana’s Incumbent Worker Training Program, evaluate the workforce needs of Louisiana businesses, and consider ways the program could be better utilized to enhance workforce training.
Both of these resolutions are intended to shape policy recommendations for the 2026 legislative session and beyond.
Better Louisiana believes the 2025 session yielded some major wins for the state as we work to grow our economy, improve educational and training opportunities for our citizens, and retain top talent in Louisiana. No session is perfect, and certainly there were some disappointments along the way. But overall, we believe this session effectively built on the groundwork laid with last year’s tax reforms and better positions Louisiana for a more prosperous future.