Gary Carter — Senate - District 7
Votes Like
Live from the 2025 Regular Session
(658 Senate floor votes analyzed - so far...)
Upcoming Committee Hearings
Transportation, Highways & Public Works Committee
🏛 Senate📅 No upcoming hearing scheduled
🕗 Bills Pending: 1
Sponsored Bills
SB128: Requires a written report when any law enforcement officer uses force on a member of the public. (8/1/25)
Last Action: Effective date 8/1/2025.
Date: 2025-06-20
Author: Gary Carter (D)
Co-sponsors: Tehmi Chassion (D) Alonzo Knox (D)
📅 Not Scheduled
SB204: Provides for the board of commissioners of the Algiers Development District. (8/1/25)
Last Action: Effective date 8/1/2025.
Date: 2025-06-20
Author: Gary Carter (D)
📅 Not Scheduled
SPECIAL DISTRICT board changes.
Revises the membership of the Algiers Development District board of commissioners:
- Reduces state senate representation from two senators to one senator representing the 15th Ward of Orleans Parish.
- Adds the U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District, or their designee, as a new board member.
Effective August 1, 2025.
SB205: Provides for employment practices related to wage history, wage disclosure, and retaliation. (8/1/25)
Last Action: Introduced in the Senate; read by title. Rules suspended. Read second time and referred to the Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations.
Date: 2025-04-14
Author: Gary Carter (D)
Pending: 🏛 Labor & Industrial Relations 5 📅 Not Scheduled
SB 205 (2025) – Summary
Prohibits employers from using a job applicant’s wage history when making hiring or salary decisions. Employers may not:
- Ask about, rely on, or use prior wage information.
- Discriminate or retaliate against applicants who refuse to disclose wage history.
Also protects employees who discuss or disclose wages, unless the employee has access to wage data as part of their job and improperly shares it.
Effective August 1, 2025.
SB206: Provides relative to the state minimum wage. (gov sig) (OR INCREASE GF EX See Note)
Last Action: Introduced in the Senate; read by title. Rules suspended. Read second time and referred to the Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations.
Date: 2025-04-14
Author: Gary Carter (D)
Pending: 🏛 Labor & Industrial Relations 5 📅 Not Scheduled
MINIMUM WAGE BILL
Imposes a state minimum wage of $10/hour in 2025, increasing to $12 in 2027 and $14 in 2029. It creates a private right of action for wage disputes and imposes reporting mandates on the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
OPPOSITION:
1. Job Losses and Economic Harm to Small Business
Artificially raising the minimum wage by nearly 40% over four years imposes unsustainable labor costs on small businesses, which make up the backbone of Louisiana’s economy.
Many small employers, particularly in rural areas or low-margin industries (retail, restaurants, hospitality), cannot absorb these mandated increases without cutting hours, jobs, or benefits—or they would be put out of business.
2. One-Size-Fits-All Mandate Ignores Local Conditions
This sweeping mandate ignores the lower cost of living in many parishes and effectively forces wage inflation where the market does not support it.
3. Civil Lawsuit Provision Encourages Legal Abuse
Creates a new private right of action against employers for minimum wage violations, with mandatory attorney fees. This opens the door to even more costly, frivolous lawsuits that are destroying Louisiana.
SB207: Requires all public high school students to have access to available vocational and technical courses. (8/1/25) (EN SEE FISC NOTE GF EX)
Last Action: Effective date 8/1/2025.
Date: 2025-06-20
Author: Gary Carter (D)
Co-sponsors: Rick Edmonds (R) Katrina Jackson-Andrews (D) Blake Miguez (R) Beth Mizell (R) Beryl Amedee (R) Ken Brass (D) Josh Carlson (R) Kathy Edmonston (R) Barbara Freiberg (R) Terry Landry Jr. (D) Charles Owen (R) Sylvia Taylor (D) Rashid Young (D)
...and 8 more.
📅 Not Scheduled
SENATE floor amendments [LINK] add flexibility and protections related to vocational and technical education courses in high schools. They allow schools to request a waiver from offering such courses if their mission or curriculum does not align, subject to approval by both their local board and BESE. They also prohibit charging students course fees if the school receives Minimum Foundation Program career development funds for the course.
SENATE committee amendments [LINK] clarify that all public high schools must offer available vocational courses, and may partner with other public schools, two-year colleges, or approved nonprofit proprietary schools to provide these courses, add that this law does not override existing statutes, and require schools to inform students about eligibility for the TOPS Tech Early Start Award.
Requires all public high schools, including charter schools, to provide students access to vocational and technical education courses. Schools that do not offer a selected course must partner with another public school or LCTCS campus to provide it.
Key Provisions:
- Mandates access to vocational/technical courses for all high school students.
- Authorizes partnerships with other schools or community/technical colleges.
- Applies requirement to charter schools.
SB211: Provides relative to persons authorized to carry a concealed handgun without a permit. (8/1/25)
Last Action: Introduced in the Senate; read by title. Rules suspended. Read second time and referred to the Committee on Judiciary C.
Date: 2025-04-14
Author: Gary Carter (D)
Pending: 🏛 Judiciary C 4 📅 Not Scheduled
- Authorizes courts to prohibit certain individuals from carrying concealed handguns without a permit based on a petition by a district attorney.
- Applies when the person is believed to pose an imminent risk of injury to self or others and possesses a firearm.
- Requires clear and convincing evidence at a hearing; court orders are reported to NICS.
- Exempts such individuals from permitless carry protections.
- Effective August 1, 2025.
SENATE floor amendments [LINK] clarify that the required use-of-force reporting applies specifically to physical force, explicitly including weapons. They also mandate that agency policies specify when reports must be made, who completes them, and penalties for noncompliance. Additionally, the bill is named "Shantel Arnold's Law."
SENATE committee amendment [LINK] clarifies that a use of force report is only required when the force used is likely to cause more than brief or minor pain. The report must be completed by the officer involved or their immediate supervisor.
Requires mandatory reporting whenever law enforcement officers use force on members of the public, regardless of arrest or injury outcomes.
Key Provisions:
- Requires the Council on Peace Officer Standards and Training to adopt a statewide mandatory reporting policy by January 1, 2026.
- Applies uniformly to all law enforcement agencies in Louisiana, allowing for the adoption of stricter local policies if desired.
- Mandates that all use-of-force reports are public records and subject to Louisiana Public Records Law.
- Effective date is August 1, 2025.