A Louisiana House bill would increase the oyster lease rate by 50 percent, raising the annual rate $1 per acre and bringing in about $400,000 more annually.
The bill also would place the money, along with the about $800,000 already generated from $2-an-acre annual leases, into the state's Public Oyster Seed Ground Development Fund to aid with redeveloping those grounds that have suffered since the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The bill, sponsored by State Rep. Ray Garofalo, R-Chalmette, comes after a Legislative Auditor report last month said Louisiana has the second-lowest rate for oyster leases among the top six states that produce Eastern oysters, the type Louisiana produces. The audit had suggested raising the lease rate from $2 an acre per year to $5.20 per acre — the average oyster lease rate of five of the states surveyed.
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