LA SPECIAL SESSION AGAIN - Perhaps the 7th Time will be a Charm as another special legislative session officially began for Louisiana Lawmakers yesterday afternoon as they gathered in Baton Rouge once again to resolve a budget gap left over from the previous special session that ended earlier this month.
Lawmakers had approved a $29 billion budget but it includes cuts to higher education, public safety and welfare programs, among others. Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, has urged legislators to extend half of an expiring 1 percent sales tax to fill the gap and avoid cuts, but the proposal has been repeatedly rejected in the Republican-controlled House. The sales tax will again be the main focus. Edwards stressed the urgency for a solution to lawmakers during his session-opening address.
"This is it, our last chance to adequately fund our priorities and reduce the tax burden on the people of Louisiana by more than $550 million," Edwards said.
The debate will once again revolve around fractions of a penny. The state sales tax rate is set to drop from 5 cents to 4 cents on July 1. Gov Edwards supports keeping half of that expiring penny in place, setting the rate at 4.5 percent which would fill the budget gap and avoid major cuts to state services.
But resistence to the plan is coming mostly from Republicans in the House who are split when it comes to sales tax. GOP Representative Beryl Amedee of Houma, LA says her constituents back home are struggling financially to make it in south Louisiana's economy and they can't afford the tax burden.
"We still have people being laid off, we still have people whose hours have been cut. This is not a time I can go back home and face my constituents and say, 'I've just solved our state budget problems by taking more money out of your pocket this week," she explained.
Rep. Stephen Dwight, Republican from Lake Charles says he's willing to consider keeping some portion of the one penny in place, but exactly how much, he's not sure yet. "I don't want to see these drastic cuts for district attorneys, for higher ed, for TOPS, for health care. But I also don't want to grow government," he says.
If lawmakers can't agree to pass the plan... by June 27th, the budget as it stands now will go into effect resulting in a chain-reaction of cuts which will ripple throughout Louisiana; Governor Edwards made that fact clear in his opening comments.
"The clock is winding down," Gov. John Bel Edwards told members of the Legislature Monday. "We will start the next fiscal year on July 1, whether or not we fix this cliff.”
The last time Louisiana held a 7th Special Session was in 1991 when Buddy Roemer was Governor. Public Radio WRKF contributed to this report
