Robert Adley (Louisiana Politician) - Legislative Accomplishments

Legislative Accomplishments

From his first year in the House, Adley has been a strong advocate of the Louisiana Downs horse racetrack, established in 1974 in Bossier City. In 1980, he clashed with the Acadiana delegation, which simiarly protects the newer Evangeline Downs, founded in 1965 in Lafayette, regarding overlapping racing dates. Adley prevailed on the issue because four south Louisiana representatives, confused in debate, mistakenly voted for the counter position on the bill. Adley then asked the House to reverse the action and return the bill to the calendar because he did not want to score a legislative victory by subterfuge. His decision made the owner of Louisiana Downs furious.

Adley's colleague, Ron Gomez of Lafayette, said that Adley's action "was the mark of a big man. Robert Adley had my respect for life. He subsequently became a floor leader with me during the Roemer administration, suffered through the personal tragedy of losing a brilliant teenage son, left his seat in the House in 1996 to run unsuccessfully for governor, and has still managed to maintain a highly successful career in the oil and gas industry. He also still has the 'fire in the belly' which may get him back into the political arena in the future," as Gomez predicted three years before Adley was elected to the state Senate.

The next year, Adley's Bill 952 became Act 726 of the 1981 legislative session. The tracks had discussed the matter, and accommodations were made by each.

In 1986, Adley was part of a group of bipartisan legislators who declared their independence of gubernatorial direction over the state House of Representatives. The group pushed through $600 million in cuts in state spending though Governor Edwards had predicted the lawmakers would fail in that attempt. "We have a chance to change history in this state. No time before has the legislature been able to do independently what it had to do," Adley said.

In 1989, Representative Adley supported Governor Roemer's bill to change the taxation of natural gas from percent of volume to percent of value, the method used in the other natural-gas producing states. The bill fell nine votes short of the two-thirds needed for passage. Adley lashed out at industry lobbyists and his colleagues who opposed the bill: "When you go home you will have to answer to people who will ask 'how could you vote for sales taxes on food, drugs and utiliaties and not vote for a tax on Texaco, Exxon and, Conoco?'"

In the 2007 legislative session, Senator Adley voted to secure some $50 million from the state for the Cyber Command Center at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City. The Cyber Command Center, with an annual payroll of some $750 million, is expected to employ as many as twenty thousand persons. The Air Force is considering a 58-acre (230,000 m2) tract adjacent to the east side of Bossier Parish Community College as a potential location (along with 17 others) for the new Cyber Command (to be decided in October 2008). The funds that Adley helped to obtain will potentially be used to enhance U.S. Highway 80 to include traffic signals and turn lanes.

In the 2007 legislative session, Adley sponsored a bill to provide capital improvements for Louisiana's technical colleges and community colleges. He maintains that a "strong system of community and technical colleges is essential to creating a skilled workforce." Lawmakers also adopted provisions of another Adley bill which reforms the Ethics Commission by prohibiting the director from earning outside income through contract work for parties having political interests with the state. Adley worked closely to develop income-disclosure legislation and has endorsed the Blueprint for Louisiana, a list of reforms pushed by a "good-government" group. Adley is vice chairman of the Senate Environmental Quality and the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs committees and is a member of the Senate Transportation, Highways and Public Works Committee.

In 2010, Adley sponsored Senate Bill 549, to terminate funding for the Tulane University Environmental Law Clinic. Adley's bill, which had the backing of the Louisiana Chemical Association and the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, came into a new atmosphere when the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. Tulane University president Scott Cowen testified, against Adley's bill, in the Commerce Committee of the Louisiana senate. The Commerce Committee killed the bill.