2026 Legislative and Risk Alert Updates
From the Louisiana legislature to the Legislative Auditor’s office, here are a number of updates for clients to be aware of this year:
HB 431 update:
An update to the 2025 law governing the state’s civil liability laws was passed in the Louisiana legislature this summer. The 2026 update goes into effect January 1, 2027 and requires certain training for municipal officials.
Specifically, all mayors, and optionally members of governing authorities in municipalities with 15,000 or fewer residents, must participate in training courses offered by state agencies, associations, or groups that focus on enhancing their knowledge of laws related to municipal governance. These training programs, which will be developed in conjunction with the Louisiana Municipal Association, will cover a broad range of topics including ethics, finance, public safety, and land use, and mayors will be required to complete at least sixteen hours of approved training annually.
Mayors will need to attest to their compliance with these training requirements, with this attestation being part of their municipality's annual financial statement submission and subject to verification by the municipality's auditor, and a public list of compliant and non-compliant mayors will be maintained online by the legislative auditor. This bill also specifies that temporary appointments to the office of mayor for less than one year are exempt from these training requirements.
LLA Risk Alerts
The Louisiana Legislative Auditor (LLA) has issued two risk alerts. The first, Risk Alert No. 64, relates to late findings, and is effective for fiscal years ending 12/31/2025 and onward.
Late findings are no longer required if the following criteria are met:
• An emergency or non-emergency extension request is submitted to the LLA before the statutory due date (or before the revised deadline if a prior extension was approved). Please note due dates falling on weekends and holidays do not extend the date for filing extension requests; and
• The extension request is approved by LLA; and
• The report is submitted to the LLA via LLA’s CPA portal by the revised deadline.
If any one of the three criteria listed above are not met, a late finding is required.
The LLA’s Risk Alert No. 65 is effective as of July 1, 2026 and relates to mandated procurement training.
All elected officials of municipalities and municipal employees whose job duties involve procurement activities are to complete a minimum of one hour of annual training on procurement and the letting of contracts. These activities include but are not limited to the purchase of materials and supplies, public works, or drafting, managing, or supervision of contracts, including but not limited to procurement contracts, cooperative endeavor agreements, contracts for professional services, and the letting of public contracts pursuant to Louisiana Revised Statute 38:2211 et seq.
The initial reporting period is July 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026. Thereafter, reporting will be conducted on a full calendar-year basis.
LLA is requesting contracted CPAs to verify completion of this training as part of compliance testing.
Please reach out to your Faulk & Winkler professional team for more information about how these updates pertain to your business.