Gov. John Bel Edwards has called three special sessions during his first 14 months in office, and another could very well be on the way, says Jeremy Alford.
“That would be remarkable,” Alford writes in his latest column. “The sitting Legislature has already served more consecutive days in session than any other since the body began meeting in 1812.”
Mix in the two regular sessions thus far, plus an organizational session in 2016, and lawmakers have convened for a legislative session six times in less than a year and a half, Alford notes.
“But are we about to see yet another special session in 2017? Maybe,” he writes. “To be certain, no one who makes a living inside of the State Capitol would bet against that happening right now.”
After all, the House kicked the main budget bill over to the Senate earlier this month without any new revenue being approved, he notes. The move, which Edwards called a “non-starter,” ran contrary to the priorities of the Senate.
That has set up a staring match, Alford says.
“Who blinks first in this game of political chicken will give us a decent idea of how this regular session will end—and whether it’ll bleed into another special session,” he writes. “How much, or how little, the governor will be willing to accept from the legislative process is also critical to understanding the possible paths forward.”
Edwards issued two economic benchmarks at the beginning of the regular session that he wanted lawmakers to reach, Alford notes. The first was the executive budget, which as originally proposed needed another $440 million to be flush, and the second was the $1.3 billion in temporary tax revenue that will vanish in 2018.
The first has proved to be a bar too high for the House, which instead passed a variation of a standstill budget and is now negotiating with the Senate on that issue, Alford says. And the second has yet to be taken up even with the session more than halfway complete.
“Representatives are likewise becoming disillusioned about the chances of any major sales tax fixes passing off of the floor, although it’s way too early to forecast failure with any confidence,” Alford writes. “And that makes it a policy issue to watch. In fact, what the House ultimately decides to do with the state sales tax structure could greatly influence the outcome of the ongoing regular session—and the governor’s decision to potentially call a fourth special session.”
Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or on Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
