ELECTION 2015
Candidate Questionnaire
SECTION 1: ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
1. Earned Income Tax Credit
The federal EITC makes work pay by offsetting federal payroll and income taxes for working families. The EITC
lifts more families above the poverty level each year than any other federal program. Louisiana was the first
southern state to establish an Earned Income Tax Credit in 2008 to help families meet their basic needs. The
state credit amount is 3.5% of the federal credit – the lowest in the nation – and has never been increased.
The Earned Income Tax Credit is a federal program that helps working families meet their basic needs. Will
you support legislation increasing the state credit amount from 3.5%, the lowest in the nation, to 7%?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Do Not Know
D. Decline to Answer
2. Equal Pay
Louisiana women make 66 cents for every dollar a man makes. In 2012, Governor Jindal of Louisiana signed the
Louisiana Equal Pay for Women Act into law, an important step forward toward achieving equal pay for the
women of Louisiana. Unfortunately, although the original bill covered all employers with 15 or more employees,
the final bill that was enacted applies only to state employees.
Will you support legislation that would extend the 2012 Louisiana Equal Pay for Women Act that protects
state employees to all women in Louisiana?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Do Not Know
D. Decline to Answer
3. Minimum Wage
Currently, 29 states and D.C. have minimum wages above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour which
has not been increased since 2009. Louisiana is one of only five states in the nation that does not have a
minimum wage statute. Full time minimum wage workers in Louisiana earn a total of $290.00 per week and
approximately $15,080.00 per year (based on 8 hour days and 260-days of work per year) before taxes.
Louisiana has the 2nd highest poverty rate in the nation.
Will you support legislation that would increase Louisiana’s minimum wage above the federal minimum,
which is currently $7.25 an hour?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Do Not Know
D. Decline to Answer
Candidate Questionnaire
4. Medicaid Expansion
The federal government has offered to compensate expansion states at 100 percent for the first three years
through 2016. By 2020, the federal contribution will still amount to at least 90 percent of the cost. That's
compared with the roughly 62 percent it pays now for traditional Medicaid in Louisiana. Louisiana has rejected
this opportunity. HCR 75 was passed in the 2015 legislative session to potentially help the state's budget, saving
$100 million to $200 million a year in state spending on health care that could be covered through the Medicaid
expansion funds. The legislation allows hospitals to pool their dollars and use that money to attract new federal
Medicaid money to compensate them for their care for the poor.
Will you support legislation to expand federally supported Medicaid coverage in Louisiana?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Do Not Know
D. Decline to Answer
5. Predatory Lending
A typical Louisiana borrower will need to take 9 payday loans each year to pay off their original debt,
resulting in $270 in fees for a one-time $100 loan. The annual percentage rate for a payday loan in
Louisiana is 780 percent, compared to an annual percentage rate of 24 percent for major credit cards.
Seventeen states have banned predatory lending practices by capping interest rates.
Would you support legislation to ban predatory lending in Louisiana by capping interest rates?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Do Not Know
D. Decline to Answer
SECTION 2: EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
6. Act 3 Funding
The legislature passed Act No. 3 in 2012 to require the BESE to create a comprehensive and integrated delivery
network to manage and oversee all programs that provide early childhood care or educational services. Act. 3
intended a comprehensive and integrated system to ensure that every child enters kindergarten healthy and
ready to learn beginning in the 2015-2016 school year. Louisiana currently appropriates no state general fund
money or TANF money to early care and education services for children under age 4. BESE reported to the
legislature that the cost of the first phase of Act 3 implementation was estimated to be $80 million and that
$200 million would be needed by 2020 for full implementation.
Will you support legislation to appropriately fund the implementation of Act 3, The Early Childhood Education
Act?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Do Not Know
D. Decline to Answer
Return to: Haley Norris, United Way of Southeast Louisiana, 2515 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA 70119
Page 2 of 4
Candidate Questionnaire
7. Licensure of Child Care Facilities
The Louisiana Department of Education defines a Child Day Care Center as any place or facility operated by any
institution, society, agency, corporation, person or persons, or any other group for the purpose of providing
care, supervision, and guidance of 7 or more children, not including those related to the caregiver. Known small
day cares outnumber licensed day cares and preschools by a 3-1 margin. Thousands more day cares operate
outside of any oversight at all, caring for an unknown number of children. Louisiana established the seven-child
licensing threshold decades ago when day care was viewed mostly as a form of baby-sitting. Child care
advocates and professionals say it’s a standard that’s long overdue for change, in large part to ensure young
children are better prepared for when they enter school. Advocates, too, say allowing so many children in
unregulated environments could lead to tragedy.
Will you support legislation mandating licensure of small child-care centers that serve seven or less children
ages 0-6 that are not related to the caregiver?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Do Not Know
D. Decline to Answer
8. Whole Child Health
Since 1987, the CDC's Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child coordinated school health approach has
been the blueprint for integrating health-promoting practices in schools, and coordinated school health
programs have helped to establish policies which includes ten components: health education; nutrition
environment and services; employee wellness; social and emotional school climate; physical environment;
health services; counseling, psychological, and social services; community involvement; family engagement; and
physical education and physical activity. In the 2014 legislative session, SCR 34 proposed that the DHH, the DOE
and Medicaid managed organization draft a plan by January of 2016 for implementation of WS, WC, WC across
Louisiana.
Will you support legislation to implement the Whole Child Health Initiative that coordinates health service
delivery at the school level?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Do Not Know
D. Decline to Answer
SECTION 3: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
9. Dating Partners
Louisiana law currently excludes dating partners as perpetrators or victims of domestic abuse battery even
though 53% of all domestic violence victims are abused by a current or former boyfriend or girlfriend. According
to the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 23 of 47 domestic abuse homicides were committed by
“boyfriends” as opposed to family or household members. In the 2015 legislative session, the NRA successfully
opposed adding dating partners to the criminal domestic abuse battery statute because it would add more
convicts to those who would be prohibited from possessing a firearm. Dating partners are eligible for all civil
Return to: Haley Norris, United Way of Southeast Louisiana, 2515 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA 70119
Page 3 of 4
Candidate Questionnaire
protections under the Domestic Abuse Assistance Act, but do not qualify for victim status under the domestic
abuse battery statute in the criminal code.
Will you support legislation to include dating partners, as defined in existing law, as victims under the
domestic abuse battery statute?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Do Not Know
D. Decline to Answer
10. Firearms
Louisiana law currently prohibits the possession of a firearm by any person against whom the court has issued a
permanent injunction or a protective order for stalking or violence upon a family member, household member
or dating partner for the duration of the injunction or protective order. Louisiana law also currently prohibits
possession of a firearm by any person convicted of domestic abuse battery for 10 years following the completion
of the sentence imposed. Louisiana has no laws which require a person prohibited from possessing a firearm to
surrender those firearms to any person or government authority or to require law enforcement to seize firearms
from such persons.
Will you support legislation to ensure that persons prohibited by law from possessing firearms are indeed
dispossessed of those firearms?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Do Not Know
D. Decline to Answer
11. Stalking
Louisiana has ranked in the top 10 of states with the highest domestic violence homicides for over 10 years. 76%
of intimate partner (dating partner, household member, family member) femicide victims had been stalked by
their partners. 89% of femicide victims had been stalked in the 12 months before their murders. Stalking has
been identified as a risk factor for severe, even lethal, violence. Legislation to make a conviction of intimate
partner stalking a felony in Louisiana was defeated in committee with votes influenced by the NRA despite
strong evidence that intimate partner stalkers were the most malignant of all stalkers and stalked their victims
twice as long as stranger/acquaintance stalkers.
Will you approve legislation to make a first offense stalking of an intimate partner conviction a felony?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Do Not Know
D. Decline to Answer
Submitted By: _______________________________
Print Name
____________________________________________
On Behalf of the Campaign of
Signed By : _______________________________________________
Date: __________________________
Return to: Haley Norris, United Way of Southeast Louisiana, 2515 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA 70119
Page 4 of 4