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March 05, 1943 - February 25, 2018

GUEYDAN — A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:00 AM on Wednesday, February 28, 2018 at St. Peter the Apostle Roman Catholic Church honoring the life of Martha Lucy Marceaux Smith, 74, who passed away on Sunday, February 25, 2018 at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital. She will be laid to rest at Gueydan Cemetery with Reverend Clint Trahan officiating the services.
Martha and her husband were very active in the family business, Marceaux's Superette. She dedicated much of her time to the Ladies' Altar Society, her local rosary group, St. Peter's School, St. Peter's Choir, and St. Peter's Spring Bazaar where she was known as the cotton candy lady along with her friend, Brenda Vondenstein. She also served as a volunteer for Hurricane Katrina. She was known by many names such as Nana to her great grandchildren and Maw or Maw Maw by her grandchildren. Everyone knew her from her dynamic personality that brought lots of laughter. She enjoyed going to the casino, playing cards, and playing Mexican Train Dominoes with her family and friends. She became the matriarch of her family when her mother passed away. She will be deaply missed by all.
She is survived by her husband of 58 years, Melvin Smith, Sr. of Gueydan; one son, Melvin Smith, Jr. and his wife, Margie of Gueydan; two daughters, Rebecca and her husband, Ricky Vondenstein of Gueydan and Chantay and her husband, Ryan Abshire of Abbeville; three sisters, Margie and her husband, Irvin LeBouef, Sr. of Gueydan, Florence and her husband, Dale Benoit of Lake Arthur, and Barbara and her husband, Dwain Fuselier of Luling; one brother, Nelson Marceaux of Gueydan; one sister-in-law, Wilda Marceaux of Gueydan ; six grandchildren, Neil Lejeune, Jr. and his wife, Hannah, Ashley Smith and his wife, Wendy, Brad Lejeune and his wife, Krystal, Caina Smith, Bryce Smith and his wife, Chelsea, and Spencer Abshire; and eight great grandchildren, Kailey L., Drake L., Reece L., Reagan S., Gannon S., Londyn L., Lexi L., and Lane L.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Wilson Marceaux and the former Mary Oneida Cormier; two daughters, Melissa S. Lejeune and Caina Smith; and one brother, Darrel Marceaux.
The family would like to thank the staff at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital and especially Dr. Chris Thompson and Dr. Michael Broussard for their excellent care.
The family requests that visiting hours be observed at Vincent Funeral Home - Gueydan, 311 Fourth St., on Tuesday, February 27, 2018 from 11:00 AM until 9:00 PM with a rosary being prayed at 7:00 PM; Wednesday, February 28, 2018 from 8:00 AM until the procession departs for the church.
All funeral arrangements are being conducted by Vincent Funeral Home of Gueydan, (337) 536-6124 [Service Information 225-5276]. Condolences may be sent to the Smith family at www.vincentfuneralhome.net.

By Matt Houston and Drew White
LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – As the second week of the 17-day special legislative session begins, House committees on Sunday broke a stalemate, at least temporarily, and approved bills that could help the state avoid major budget cuts when $1 billion of temporary taxes expire this summer.
Several Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted with Democrats to move some of the bills to the floor, where they are likely to face another contentious debate.
The committee voted 12-5 to move a bill by Rep. Stephen Dwight, R-Lake Charles, that extends one-quarter of a cent of the fifth penny of state sales tax and streamlines certain exemptions to raise about $300 million a year in revenue.
In return for the partial sales tax extension, the committee also advanced, 10-7, a bill by Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, that would limit some of the deductions for Louisianans who itemize deductions on their federal tax returns. Leger’s bill would raise $79 million.
An amendment by Rep. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, added a sunset provision to the quarter-of-a-penny extension to the sales tax. It would expire in mid-2021, essentially creating another “fiscal cliff” in three years.
Seabaugh argued that the amendment buys the Legislature time to make more comprehensive tax reforms that could make Louisiana more appealing to business.
“We gave ourselves a couple of years to try and fix the problem, and making [the extension of this tax] permanent is admitting we cannot fix the problem,” Seabaugh said. “I’m not ready to do that, yet.”
Several legislators noted that they have been unable to pass significant fiscal reform in the four special sessions since Governor John Bel Edwards took office in 2015, and they will not have the opportunity to address bigger structural changes in this special session because of procedural limitations.
“In my short five years here – and they’ve been pretty miserable – I’ve learned the Legislature won’t do anything it doesn’t have to do,” Rep. Barry Ivey, R-Baton Rouge, said. “In the last two years, we won’t even do that.”
He said he opposed the compromises approved on Sunday because “once we kick the can on revenue, there is no need for structural reform.”
House Democrats have consistently argued the extension of the sales tax disproportionately affects poor people, and lobbied for the limits on the itemized deductions as a means for spreading the burden to wealthier Louisianans.
Republican representatives in favor of Leger’s measure to limit the deductions were Hammond’s Julie Stokes, Lake Charles’s Stephen Dwight, Oil City’s Jim Morris and Hammond’s Chris Broadwater.
Seabaugh argued that the bills “seems like an attempt by the state to take back more of the savings coming from the federal tax change.”
Leger retorted that the federal tax cut is not permanent, and noted that the Legislature, including Seabaugh, had voted down several options to divorce state and federal tax policy in previous sessions.
Another Seabaugh amendment married both bills to the passage of six other Republican-backed bills, including bills that would cap government spending, establish the “Louisiana Checkbook” government transparency website and make changes in Medicaid.
One of the Medicaid bills, sponsored by Rep. Frank Hoffmann, R-West Monroe, would have instituted work requirements for Medicaid recipients in Louisiana. But amendments in the House Health and Welfare Committee on Sunday stripped the bill of its teeth to the point where finding a job is more of a suggestion.
Democrats opposed the bill out of concern that Medicaid recipients could lose health coverage if they lost their jobs. The committee then approved an amendment by Rep. Marcus Hunter, D-Monroe, guaranteeing that no Louisiana Medicaid recipients will lose coverage because of the bill.
Setting up a system to ensure that Medicaid recipients were working also would have cost about $80 million.
The House Ways and Means Committee also moved legislation Sunday that would lower rebate rates for the Competitive Projects Payroll Incentive Program, and another bill that makes permanent the elimination of certain corporate income tax deductions.
Combined, those two measures would save the state an additional $30 million, bringing the total for the bills passed today to about $409 million.
The state also will collect an extra $302 million in tax thanks to the federal tax cuts. Those cuts also will reduce the value of the federal-tax deductions on Louisiana residents’ returns, thus increasing their state tax bills.
Tryfon Boukouvidis and Sarah Gamard contributed to this report.