“We’re going to hit it head-on.”
That’s what House Appropriations Chairman Zee Zeringue, R-Houma, told Jeremy Alford last week when asked how his committee intended to dive into budget hearings. Alford writes in his new opinion piece that he wanted to know what potential there was for the committee to pass either a temporary, continuation or contingency budget.
Like most everyone else in leadership positions in the building, however, Zeringue said those intentions could change based on several circumstances. But for now, committee members are charging forward to tackle the budget warts and all, which could eventually mean devastating cuts somewhere down the line.
No one could have predicted the current fiscal environment a year ago. Unemployed residents, sinking oil prices and shuttered businesses are in, while planned investments in early education and teacher pay are out. The harsh truth, moreover, is the landscape may stay that way for a while, according to Greg Albrecht, the Legislature’s economist.
“It’s going to be a long, drawn-out recovery here with no real boom,” Albrecht told lawmakers this week, “The numbers are going to go down pretty bad for a while.”
In terms of what the budget will look like by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year, lawmakers like Zeringue are watching for a number of mile markers.
Read Alford’s full column, where he goes into detail on each of the benchmarks lawmakers are watching as they work to set the Louisiana budget.
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.
