Louisiana legislators begin the fourth week of their fiscal session today with the House Appropriations Committee publicly unveiling the Republican plans for funding state agencies and dealing with a $1.4 billion budget deficit expected to arrive July 1, 2018. That date marks the end of some temporary tax measures approved during special sessions last year.
Republicans control both the House and Senate, and taxes that have to begin in the lower chamber are extremely difficult to approve. It takes two-thirds (70) of its current 104 members to pass a tax, and there are 60 Republicans, 41 Democrats and 3 independents. A Bossier City seat is vacant at the moment.
Speaker of the House Taylor Barras, R-New Iberia, and Rep. Cameron Henry, R-Metairie and chairman of the Appropriations Committee, met with Democrats last week to explain their plans for a standstill budget (appropriating no more than the current year’s budget total).
News reports after that meeting said Democrats left wanting more details. The Advocate said Rep. Gene Reynolds, D-Minden and Democratic Caucus chairman, left not knowing any more than he knew before the meeting.
The GOP leaders said they want to appropriate only 97.4 percent of the current year’s budget with $92 million to fully fund the TOPS scholarship program, the newspaper reported. They said there would be no extra $400 million to fund areas supported by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards.
Barras said the GOP plan would erase up to about half of the expected budget deficit and there are measures on the agenda that could provide the rest. That could be new taxes or elimination of tax breaks totaling that amount. However, many Republicans consider ending tax breaks the same as increasing taxes, and their state party is asking them to oppose any new taxes.
The House and Senate have scheduled heavy-loaded committee agendas in what could become their most active week this session. Many bills are up for final action in both houses, but most of them don’t involve important fiscal issues aimed at balancing the state budget.
Although many state agencies and higher education are facing budget cuts, House and Senate leaders on April 19 formulated their own budgets that are $10 million higher than this year’s $88 million, which was a reduction from the previous year.
Barras said, “We’ve made our contribution. To continue at that (lower) level would be difficult.” Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego, agreed.
The Appropriations Committee today will begin debating the major money bills. House Bill 1 is the spending plan, and the others cover ancillary (support) services, money transfers, revenue sharing distributions, supplemental appropriations and judicial and legislative budgets.
The House Ways and Means Committee has 16 bills on its agenda. Most of them are tax credit measures.
The House Governmental Affairs Committee Tuesday has eight measures. H.B. 456 by Rep. Neil Abramson, D-New Orleans and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, is a proposal to hold a constitutional convention to reform the budget and tax systems.
Abramson’s measure calls for a limited convention restricted to certain topics. Some legislators consider a convention of this type the best way to do budget and tax reform that is supposed to take place at the current session.
The New Orleans lawmaker also has H.B. 598 being heard today in the House Transportation Committee. The highway priority program lists eight requirements for construction and Abramson is adding a ninth. It would establish a multi-year timeline for projects to include the sources of funding.
The committee will also hear H.B. 604 by Rep. Ken Havard, R-Jackson and committee chairman. It seeks to have the priority program list projects constructed by parish and legislative district and establishes seven stages of construction progress.
Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, R-Metairie, is sponsoring H.B. 537 that transfers authority to regulate cable and video service providers from the secretary of state to the Louisiana Public Service Commission that regulates utilities. The House Commerce Committee will hear it Monday.
The Senate Finance Committee has 10 bills on its Monday agenda. Sen. Jack Donahue, R-Mandeville, is sponsor of Senate Bill 100. It would require the state Division of Administration headed by the governor to annually prepare a standstill budget in addition to the current continuation budget. Both would be submitted to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget at its first meeting in January of each year.
Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Baton Rouge is sponsor of S.B. 187. It would require the Legislative Fiscal Office to require all agencies that deal with child welfare, mental health and substance abuse to comply with requirements for inventorying of agency programs and computation of benefit-cost ratios. The information would be used in the budgeting process.
The Senate Committee on Revenue and Fiscal Affairs has 26 bills on its Monday agenda. Most deal with tax credits and exemptions being continued or discontinued. Those discontinued would produce new revenue.
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