Sound Off Louisiana

State Rep. Rhonda Butler testifying before the House Commerce Committee on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 during which she uttered complete falsehoods regarding the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC).

The following table illustrates historical efforts by the LSBC to enact a license fee increase:

As indicated on the table above, State Rep. Rhonda Butler, a former Cosmetologist, once again stepped up to the plate to carry a bill to raise cosmetology license fees.

When she did so, she uttered one flat-out falsehood along with another falsehood unless LSBC Executive Director Steve Young uttered a falsehood directly into our camera at the most recent LSBC meeting, and we would emphasize that he has steadfastly said the same exact thing repeatedly to the Board Members.

Specifically, let’s watch Butler’s testimony before the House Commerce Committee on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 during which she indicated that the Board, “has not had a license fee increase in 41 years.”

4/22/25:  Butler testifies that the LSBC, “has not had a fee increase in 41 years.”

Now, here is video of LSBC Executive Director Steve Young stating that the last fee increase was in “1996,” which, by our math, is 29 years, not 41!

LSBC Executive Director Steve Young states that the last fee increase was in “1996,” which would be 29 years, NOT 41 years!

The next falsehood by Butler is entirely attributable to her apparent trust in Young when we could have told her falsehoods come out of his mouth with regularity!

Specifically, Butler apparently swallowed Young’s contention that the LSBC’s recent enrollment in the AG plan for Member liability protection is “mandatory.”  The statement is FLAT-OUT false, and Young either knows, or dang well SHOULD know, that his statement is FALSE!

What is galling beyond words is that Young would also falsely state to a Legislative Fiscal Analyst, as reflected in this Fiscal Note revealing the measure would raise almost $1 million a year, that the increase is needed to help cover “mandatory insurance costs.”

Young has stated publicly in meetings that the AG program is “mandatory” when it is totally voluntary, and Young knows that but utters the falsehood anyway!

In fact, he strongly discouraged LSBC Members from enrolling in the program at the Board’s regular January meeting; however, upon one Member, Michael Anderson, reading that declining to enroll in the program may subject Members to “personal liability,” the Board called a special meeting to “reconsider” whether it wished to enroll in the program, and they took a vote to enroll in the program.  If one has the option and in fact has to take a formal vote of whether to enroll or not, how in the round world is that “mandatory?”

Nevertheless, Butler, who would be well advised to start paying attention to Sound Off Louisiana features rather than relying upon Young to give her accurate information, repeated Young’s falsehood as she testified before the Commerce Committee:

Butler FALSELY states that the LSBC was “mandated” to join the AG “insurance program.”

Here’s the proof that Butler was merely uttering a falsehood she heard directly from LSBC Executive Director Steve Young as he falsely told the LSBC Members that “insurance” (which it is not an insurance program), offered by the AG’s Office is “mandatory.”  Young made his false statements at the March 10, 2025 LSBC meeting:

March 10, 2025:  LSBC Executive Director FALSELY states that the AG program was “mandated” upon the LSBC Members.

Now here’s one for the books.  Here’s video of Young stating the total cost for a new website and making all the building repairs would be a one-time $250,000 – $300,000 expense, yet he is seeking a $972,000/year recurring fee increase:

Young tells Rep. C. Denise Marcelle that the LSBC needs, “probably around $250,000 – $300,000” to make the necessary upgrades, yet the Fiscal Note for his bill calls for a whopping $972,000/year RECURRING fee increase.

We will be presenting a link for the presentation of HB-326 (the massive fee increase) at the end of this feature, and it will depict Butler bemoaning and crying about how “broke we are” (and we object to her use of the word “we” so many times as if she is a Member of the LSBC)!

What Butler fails to note is that the LSBC could have funded ALL of the one-time building expenses if it had merely done like Mississippi 20 years ago and deregulated hair braiding, which would have conservatively raised about $125,000/year for the last 20 years (or a whopping $2.5 million).  Instead, Butler doesn’t even mention the fact that, instead of obtaining that $2.5 million in revenue, the LSBC actually spent $157,000 in legal fees fighting hair braiders being able to operate.  Who was the beneficiary of that $157,000?  Why, the young lady seated to Butler’s right, LSBC attorney Sherri Morris, no less!

Accordingly, excuse us if we have no sympathy whatsoever for any financial plight Young or Butler complains about.  It’s a case of misplaced financial priorities.  For that reason, as we state in the table above, we do plan to reintroduce the Republican Wall of Shame to place on prominent display any Republican legislator who votes to approve this patently absurd request for this massive fee increase.

As for Butler, we would have to grade on the curve to award her an “F” on her testimony, so her grade is officially “F-.”  Her testimony is based on pure 100 percent emotion, and it is not even remotely reflective of the facts when it comes to the LSBC, which is a body we have been monitoring, attending meetings, and recording those meetings for a decade now!  We humbly submit that our knowledge is far, far, more integral than that of Rep. Butler!

In conclusion, here are other anti-free-enterprise acts this agency has inflicted upon the citizens of Louisiana:

1.  Demanding that hair braiders MUST have a licensed cosmetologist serving as manager of a braiding facility.

2.  Routinely fighting hair braiders’ rights to practice their trade and fining them $550 for not having an inapplicable license.

3.  Consistently fighting Vietnamese manicurists over California license reciprocity.

4.  Fighting hair braiders and eyebrow threaders over licensure, causing massive legal fees as each sue the Cosmetology Board.

5.  Repeatedly incurring legal fees to fend off Rep. Julie Emerson’s hair braiding bills.

6.  Shutting Nelda Dural’s small cosmetology school down and informing her she would have to remit $50,000 to get it back open.  She had little choice but to file for bankruptcy.

7.  Incurring massive legal fees fending off the Institute for Justice’s lawsuit on behalf of eyebrow threaders.

8.  Incurring yet more massive legal fees as the Institute for Justice sues on behalf of hair braiders.

9.  Openly fighting with the very Governor who appointed them, John Bel Edwards, over hair braiding school requirements.

10.  Trying to cram ANOTHER 250 hours down Estheticians’ throats for a special designation of “advanced esthetics.”

11.  Spending thousands upon thousands of dollars fighting off former U. S. Congressman Joseph Cao’s class action lawsuit on behalf of Vietnamese manicurists.

On # 11 above, the matter was litigated in Federal Court, and Federal Judge Brian Jackson openly stated that the LSBC had, “unquestionably engaged in Constitutional Rights violations” when, on a Saturday morning, then-LSBC-inspector Sherry Stockstill entered a nail salon demanding that, “everybody freeze, nobody move.”  Her command was equally applicable to customers as it was to salon employees.

It is undisputed that Stockstill then demanded that the owners/managers of the salon place themselves in an office (i.e. “false imprisonment”) while she, without a search warrant or possessing any legal authority to engage in any of these actions, began plundering through the drawers at the facility, all while the customers and staff had to “not move!”  [CLICK HERE for the litigation].

That litigation was settled out of court, but it is demonstrative of the kind of tactics routinely deployed by the LSBC, yet we don’t see Butler mention the first word about how “we” got into the mess she asserts this Board is now in from a financial standpoint.

Beyond all of the above, the other problems with the Cosmetology Board include employee Winn Johnson selling exams for licensure for $500 a pop.  Then there was the closure of Jennifer Menard’s mobile salon to serve nursing home residents.  Then there is the fact that the Board did absolutely NOTHING about Board Member Kevin Martin permitting unauthorized “observers” into his public school classroom and reportedly charging $5,000 under the table to gain credit toward a license.

As any Member of the House is aware, whenever a Representative presents his (her) bill, it is very common for other Representatives to use the infamous, “Did you know……..?” line of questioning.

Should this bill actually make it to a vote in the Full House (past history has indicated that has been too much of an uphill climb, and we believe it should be this year as well), there is certainly plenty of material depicted above through which any Representative could quiz Butler on in terms of those infamous, “Did you know……..?” lines of questioning!  We can’t wait to see video of this bill’s presentation when and if it is called for formal debate.

CLICK HERE for the presentation of HB-326 in its entirety, which is a video causing anyone who knows the facts and past history of the LSBC to literally want to throw up.

We steadfastly maintain that ANY Republican Legislator who votes in favor of this absurd fee increase given all of the material above (and we could supply more) deserves to be booted out of office, and we will certainly strive to do what we can do to ensure that transpires!  After all, DuBusson is no longer around, is she?

Screen shot of activist Gary Chambers’ Tik Tok page wherein he interacts with radio host Roland Martin.  Chambers’ page shows, for that one feature broadcast the day before the March 29, 2025 election: 5,866 “loves,” 762 comments, and 2,734 forwards.  Chambers’ strategic deployment of Tik Tok was accompanied by a small army of opponents to Gov. Landry’s proposed Constitutional Amendments who used Tik Tok to likewise lambast both Landry and his initiatives in the weeks and days leading up to a crushing defeat at the polls on election day.

When we published this feature regarding the resounding defeat of Gov. Landry’s proposed Constitutional Amendments, near the end of the video on that feature, we stressed our contention that opponents did a far more effective job of utilizing social media and Tik Tok in particular to strongly motivate opponents to show up at the polls and defeat Landry’s initiatives.

We discussed in detail that aspect opponents’ effective use of Tik Tok beginning at the 15:00 mark of this video.  We took heat for our emphasis of just how effectively Amendment opponents utilized Tik Tok to, “hand our heads to us on a platter,” (using “us” because Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns strongly supported Proposed Constitutional Amendment Two).  The strongest sentiments were expressed by a dedicated follower of our blog who had this to say soon after we published the feature on the humiliating defeat suffered by Landry and everyone else who supported the initiatives:

I don’t think Tik Tok has a thing to do with it……I’ve never been on Tik Tok.  I don’t know anybody that was influenced to vote on this either way based on TikTok.

As Burns stated on the above-referenced video, the best thing a losing team can do after a football game is learn from the loss and observe why the other side enjoyed such a resounding victory.

To us, failing to learn why the other side had the football equivalent of blowing you out of your own stadium in legendary fashion is akin to saying, “We don’t need to study the opposition’s film.  We can just wing it on game day.”

If the proponents of the Amendment would take our advice (which they very well may not), they will do as Burns advised near the end of that postmortem video on the March 29, 2025 election and develop an effective Tik Tok assault of their own!

Unfortunately, what we have found is that, like the gentleman who texted us the above comment, many supporters readily admit to not even having a Tik Tok account (indicating an apprehension to its Chinese ownership) and are in apparent total denial of Tik Tok’s incredible influence in elections.

President Trump rode the Tik Tok craze and the “Pledge Tok Trump Dance” to achieve rock star status by reviving a song (YMCA) which came out when Burns was a sophomore in high school and use it to catapult his way to another term as President.  Furthermore, Trump, who once spoke against Tik Tok, now appears to be hell bent on finding a way to keep it around.

Since State Rep. Julie Emerson (R-Carencro) came in second place on who endured the worst adverse impact from Constitutional Amendment Two’s resounding defeat at the polls, Sound Off Louisiana’s Burns decided to ask her if she would concede opponents to Amendment Two did a much more effective job of deploying Tik Tok to defeat the initiative.  Here’s what she had to say as she appeared at the April 7, 2025 meeting of the Baton Rouge Press Club:

4/7/25:  Emerson addresses whether opponents to Constitutional Amendment Two deployed social media and Tik Tok in particular to kill the initiative at the polls on March 29, 2025.

Emerson’s response sounds at least a little like there’s an acknowledgement that proponents were way behind the curve on effective utilization of a platform like Tik Tok to sway voters.  What we’ll say is that we firmly believe that burying heads in the sand and pretending Tik Tok doesn’t exist is a formula for future even more humiliating defeats, at least in our opinion.

Now, at special request, Burns also asked if any church language would be removed from any future initiative.  Let’s view just how succinct Emerson’s answer was on that:

4/7/25:  Emerson addresses whether any “church language” is included in Round Two of she and Gov. Landry’s Rewrite of Article VII of the Louisiana Constitution.

Since Emerson is so crystal clear on that question, we see no need to even cover some of the extensive efforts by both preachers and former politicians (and at least one who is a preacher and ran for public office but was defeated) to defeat Landy and Emerson’s initiative.

Instead, we will only state our own frustration at having to literally paddle upstream to even get the message out that we did regarding Amendment Two in the final 10 days of the campaign.  We cannot begin to adequately express our frustration level to see opponents getting off-the-charts numbers on Tik Tok to defeat Amendment Two and our own efforts to promote it being like pulling teeth!  It’s now history, but it’s a lesson we’re not going to forget anytime soon, and we’ll let it go at that!

Now, we’re going to provide the YouTube video of Chambers and Martin’s interaction, but we’ll state that Tik Tok videos tend to be much shorter (typically 90 seconds to two minutes at most) and, if anyone is curious as to the content of the Tik Tok feature of Martin and Chambers, simply advance the following video to the 7:00 mark and that’s basically where the Tik Tok feature begins and lasts for a couple of minutes:

YouTube video by radio show host Roland Martin featuring Gary Chambers and the Power Coalition’s opposition to Constitutional Amendment Two on the March 29, 2025 ballot.  To get a good idea of the Tik Tok “executive summary” of the feature, advance to the 7:00 mark and play the next two or three minutes, and that gives a good feel for Chambers’ own Tik Tok feature on the matter.

As we conclude this feature, Emerson’s second time at bat regarding the reintroduction of the “Article VII Rewrite” of Louisiana’s Constitution is scheduled for Tuesday, April 22, 2025 before the Louisiana House Ways and Means Committee (which Emerson Chairs).  If the initiative makes it through both Chambers (no pun intended) of the Legislature, it will go before a vote of the people on November 3, 2026.

It’s our sincere hope that, if it does go before the people for another vote, supporters will have a vastly improved ground game when it comes to Tik Tok because, sticking with the football analogy, supporters got absolutely crushed on the field by the absence of any offense whatsoever where Tik Tok is concerned.

That fact (because it is a fact notwithstanding the gentleman’s text to us that “neither side” was influenced by Tik Tok) is something which must  change before any future vote on the matter (game played on the football field) lest the same result ensue once again!

CLICK HERE for the 4/7/25 meeting of the Baton Rouge Press Club in its entirety, which included a joint appearance by State Rep. Jack McFarland.