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"What we're seeing is simple, tax goes up, smoking use goes down, health outcomes go up," Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans said.

The House Ways and Means Committee will be talking about a measure to bump up the tax by a dollar a pack on cigarettes. New Orleans Representative Mandie Landry says Louisiana ranks among the states with the lowest tobacco taxes, and she thinks it's time for a change.

Today, the House Ways and Means Committee will hear a bill that would increase the tax on cigarettes by one dollar. New Orleans Representative Mandie Landry is the author of the legislation. As it stands, Louisiana ranks among the states with the lowest tobacco taxes, and Landry believes it’s time for change.

State Rep. Mandie Landry (D-New Orleans) also prefiled House Bill 609, which would require the SWBNO to create a stormwater fee with a rate approved by the state’s Public Service Commission. Last year, SWBNO said it was working on its own plan for a stormwater fee.

The governor has cast suspicion on Temple’s opposition to the bill, repeating an argument Rep. Mandie Landry made earlier in the hearing when she suggested to the governor that politicians usually don’t shy away from gaining more power. 

“I get a lot of questions from people asking why can’t homeowners be capped like flood insurance essentially is, and I think this actually would be good for transparency,” said Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans.

Newell Normand interviews Rep. Mandie about the 2025 Legislative Session

The ask is on top of the more than $4 million that New Orleans councilmembers and state Rep. Mandie Landry (D-New Orleans) already dedicated to the lab.

The city allocated $3 million to tackle the issue, and State Rep. Mandie Landry successfully pushed for an additional $1.3 million from the state, allowing law enforcement officials to outsource DNA testing on a larger scale.

“Destroyed”

During testimony in federal court last April, State Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, said the governor wanted the map drawn in such a way as to ensure that Graves couldn’t be reelected.

"Legislators create and pass the state’s annual budget, which the governor then signs, with a line item veto. Both have the assistance of our excellent legislative auditor and seasoned staff. A new, bureaucratic entity cannot and should not supersede these constitutional powers."

State Rep. Mandie Landry, a Democrat from Louisiana, told Vox that her state was already deeply hostile to abortion, even before the charges against Carpenter. The way forward, according to Landry, will be to build more political power state by state, not file more lawsuits or push more federal bills. “The way to dig out of the hole we’re in with reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights is to do the grunt work that takes a long time through the state legislatures,” she said.

The New Orleans Saints face new allegations for its alleged role in providing damage control for the Catholic church during a 2018 sex abuse crisis. NBC News' Marissa Parra has the details on the email exchanges between the Saints' leadership and church leaders. 

“It’s so dangerous,” said Rep. Mandie Landry. This past legislative session, she introduced a House bill designed to make it illegal to deceive voters with false impersonations or false depictions of political candidates through deepfakes.

"This is being done for optics," she said. "Even conservatives know that having the death penalty on the books is very expensive, and that it is not a deterrent. This money should be put towards teaching incarcerated people job skills so that they don't return to prison." 

“As someone who grew up on the West Bank when we still had tolls, this thrills the kid in me!” said State Representative Mandie Landry.

The Louisiana state house member Mandie Landry, a New Orleans Democrat, said she believed the clergy abuse scandal-related correspondence between Benson’s sports teams and the church “calls into question other decisions they make as an organization”.

“This is disgusting,” said state Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans. “As a New Orleans resident, taxpayer and Catholic, it doesn’t make any sense to me why the Saints would go to these lengths to protect grown men who raped children. All of them should have been just as horrified at the allegations.”

State Representative Mandie Landry is joined by The Advocate's Mark Ballard to discuss the recent terrorist attack on Bourbon Street.

“This is not a choice”

Representative Mandie Landry wants a state law that would require a more uniform policy that all coroner's offices would have to follow when it comes to notifying families of their loved ones.

State Representative Mandie Landry also joined Jim to talk about the recently completed legislative session. Landry is skeptical the state is in a better business to grow the economy after "moving money around."

For example, if a statewide business court was established, lawsuits such as those brought by local parishes against oil and gas interests could end up in a statewide business court controlled by judges who don’t live where the coastal damage took place, said state Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans. 

“Honestly, this is all being decided by men behind doors, like everything has happened here for a long time. And the rest of us here, little bits of information here and there. It does seem like there’s a huge amount of discord behind the scene and among parties and House and Senate members,” said Rep. Landry.

“I think pretty much everyone thinks this is too much in too little time and too fast and that there could be huge repercussions,” said Democratic Rep. Mandie Landry, who has been one of the most vocal opponents of the tax package.

Voting against were two New Orleans Democrats: Reps. Mandie Landry and Matthew Willard.

“These are new taxes. We are now raising taxes,” Landry said. “We’re just moving things around. I just think this hearing is an example of us not understanding much of what’s going on”