Meetings
 
Agenda Item
Docket No. RULE
 
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RE:
Memorandum concerning the dollar amount for the food and drink limit that can be provided to a public servant per event.
Facts:
The current food and drink limit per event is $77. The United States Department of Labor calculated the average change to the unadjusted CPI-U for Food and Beverage as having increased 2.7% during the 2023 calendar year.
Law:
La. R.S. 42:1115.1 prohibits persons from whom public servants are prohibited by La. R.S. 42:1111 or 1115(A) from receiving a thing of economic value, from giving public servants food, drink, or refreshments valued over a certain amount. When the statute was first enacted, the total value of the food, drink, or refreshments to be given to a public servant at an event was not to exceed $50.

However, the statute also mandated that the Louisiana Board of Ethics develop and promulgate a rule increasing the monetary limit on the receipt of food and drink by a public servant when there has been an increase in the unadjusted Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) for Food and Beverage as published by the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of labor Statistics. The limit of fifty dollars for food, drink or refreshments shall be increased by the same percentage as the percentage by which that price index is increased. The amount of the increase shall be rounded off to the nearest dollar.

Recommendations:
Promulgate a rule which increases the current value of the food and drink limit to $79 per event beginning July 1, 2024.

Assigned Attorney: Kathleen Allen
 
 
ATTACHMENTS:
Description:
Food and Drink Rule Memo to Board 2024
Consumer Price Index - December 2023