The hearing for HB 38, the $113 million tax hike the House Ways and Means Committee moved to the House floor after a two-hour session yesterday, was actually not a half-bad exercise in democratic government even if the vote went the wrong way.

And the opponents of the bill, which we are now hearing is in trouble in advance of today’s vote as there are a solid half-dozen Democrats who won’t vote for it and nowhere near enough Republicans to make up the difference, won the argument.

But unlike the usual cast of characters who turn up in committee hearings to beat back tax bills – LABI, for example, or the Chemical Association or the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association or the Realtors or any of the other business groups who regularly do the heavy lifting – this time it was ordinary Louisianans who bore the standard.

The best of them was probably New Iberia businessman Peter Vidrine, who delivered a monstrous rebuke to the tax-raising legislature that was at once civil, smart and devastating…

Here was some other testimony from a woman named Joyce Jackson which received great reviews from those in attendance…

And finally, something we thought was worth sharing – Grover Rees, who is a candidate for Congress in the 3rd District this fall, delivered a great argument about the bill’s promises to sunset in two years and refund those who would have their taxes raised under its provisions and why no one in that room should give credit to those guarantees..

Thanks to Nicholas James for clipping out the video for us.