The Louisiana Life Safety & Security Association (LLSSA) has opened registrations for the February Regional Meetings, offering industry professionals valuable opportunities for education, networking, and collaboration throughout the state.

The Region I meeting, covering the New Orleans area, is set for February 20, 2025, at Brick Oven in Kenner. 

For Region II, professionals in the Baton Rouge area will gather on February 19, 2025, for a CEU Day, lunch, and meeting at Jones Creek Regional Library. 

In Region III, participants in the Lafayette area will meet on February 18, 2025, at Top Axe in Alexandria for dinner, a meeting, and social activities. 

Finally, Region V’s Monroe-area professionals will convene at Catfish Cabin in Monroe on February 17, 2025.

These meetings will feature speakers including LLSSA Regional Vice Presidents, Committee Chairpersons, Chief Bryan Adams of the Louisiana State Fire Marshal’s Office, and representatives from local communications departments. 

For further information or to register for a regional meeting, contact LLSSA at (337) 886-7282 or email llssa@llssa.org.

The Louisiana Life Safety and Security Association (LLSSA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Patrick Taylor as the new Chairperson of its Membership Committee. With a strong background in operations, technology, and security, Patrick brings a wealth of expertise and leadership to this critical role.

Patrick Taylor currently serves as Operations Manager at Louisiana Radio Communications, overseeing the Baton Rouge branch of the company. Since joining the organization a year ago, Patrick has demonstrated exceptional operational and leadership skills, contributing to the branch’s continued success.

Patrick’s career began in the Information Technology sector, where he earned multiple certifications and gained valuable technical expertise. Seeking to expand his professional horizons, he transitioned into the physical security industry over a decade ago. Since then, Patrick has specialized in life safety and property protection, focusing on CCTV systems, intrusion detection, and access controls.

“I’m honored to take on the role of Membership Committee Chairperson and look forward to working with the LLSSA to strengthen and grow our member base,” said Patrick Taylor. “It’s a privilege to contribute to an organization dedicated to advancing life safety and security in Louisiana.”

The LLSSA is confident that Patrick’s diverse background and commitment to excellence will make him a driving force in expanding the association’s reach and fostering member engagement.

For more information on the LLSSA Please contact the Membership Committee at 337-886-7282 or llssa@llssa.org 

The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the release of comprehensive data collected by its Occupational Safety and Health Administration on more than 890,000 workplace injuries and illnesses at more than 91,000 workplaces in calendar year 2023, including incident level details on the conditions and circumstances of injury and illness events. 

Federal electronic recordkeeping and reporting requirements require certain employers to use OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application to submit injury and illnesses reports. The posted data supports OSHA’s continued efforts to carry out the agency’s statutory mission to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working people. 

To promote understanding, OSHA has produced a video explaining the workplace injury and illness data collected by the Injury Tracking Application.

In this phase of data publication, the agency is making available workplace injury and illness incident details, including name of the employer, the location of incidents, injury or illness descriptions, workers’ activities before incidents occurred, events that caused the harm, types of injuries or illnesses, and the objects or substances involved.

“Publication of this data is a milestone in our efforts to make data on workplace injuries and illnesses more transparent,” said Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker. “This information is an unprecedented tool for researchers, public health officials, businesses and workers to understand the nature of workplace injuries and illnesses in this country, whether they are looking at national trends, or the factory where they work every day.”

To protect workers’ privacy, OSHA used artificial intelligence and human review to redact personally identifiable information, such as names, Social Security numbers, phone numbers, birthdates and addresses.

By making the data accessible, employers, workers, customers and the public are empowered to make informed decisions about workplace safety and health at specific establishments. It also enables researchers to identify patterns and trends in injuries, illnesses and hazardous conditions more effectively.

Learn more about OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application and OSHA’s recordkeeping and reporting requirements.

Louisiana’s legislature has enacted significant tax reforms, including reductions in personal and corporate income taxes, offset by an increase in the statewide sales tax.

Key components of the tax reform package: 

• Individual Income Tax: Implementation of a flat 3% rate, down from the previous 4.25% for high earners, resulting in a $1.3 billion tax cut.  The standard deduction for seniors has been doubled, and nearly tripled for individuals, effectively eliminating income tax for the lowest-income households. 

• Corporate Taxes: Reduction of the corporate income tax rate to a flat 5.5%, lowering the highest tier from 7.5%. Additionally, the 0.275% corporate franchise tax has been repealed.

• Sales Tax Increase: To compensate for revenue losses from the income and corporate tax cuts, the state sales tax has been increased to 5%, making Louisiana’s combined state and local sales tax the highest in the nation.

• Constitutional Changes: The reform package includes significant constitutional amendments aimed at streamlining government operations, liquidating education trust funds to pay off school debt, and providing a permanent pay raise for teachers.

Governor Jeff Landry praised the reforms as “historic,” asserting they will allow residents to retain more of their income and stimulate business investment.  However, critics argue that while the tax cuts favor corporations and higher-income individuals, the increased sales tax disproportionately impacts lower-income households, exacerbating the state’s regressive tax system.

The legislative process involved extensive negotiations, with some proposed measures, such as expanding sales taxes to additional services, encountering resistance.  Despite these challenges, the core elements of the tax reform were passed during the special legislative session.