An “ill omen” came during Gov. John Bel Edward’s speech to open the session last week, says Jeremy Alford, when the governor “had to gently encourage lawmakers to applaud when he announced that the state would be embarking on a mission of fiscal reform this spring.”
Alford says the landscape developed even rougher edges when, not long after, Democratic players in the House reported to Edwards that he was losing support among members of his own party for a couple of his key proposals.
“In short, the governor’s most dependable votes in the Legislature weren’t materializing as had been hoped,” Alford writes in his latest column.
As for where the opposition came from, Alford says there’s a group of Democratic lawmakers who are getting cold feet after 15 and a half months of backing the governor and receiving nothing for it—particularly in the form of capital outlay money and projects.
“There’s not much Edwards can do about that; he doesn’t have the kind of cash to throw around for pet projects that his predecessors did and his administration is directing money into statewide projects at the cost of local initiatives,” he writes.
Alford notes it probably didn’t help that the first week of the session came and went without a bill being introduced for the governor’s centerpiece legislation, which is a corporate sales tax on gross receipts rather than profit.
“But that delay did give Edwards and his supporters the opportunity to accuse naysayers of acting too hastily. They had not, after all, seen an actual bill worth opposing,” he writes. “Nonetheless, with the possibility of this being a make-or-break session for the governor politically, it was not a great start. Even if the most disagreeable Democrats do eventually come around, the effort and energy spent on reversing their course will not be recouped by the administration.”
But the bigger concern for the administration, Alford says, is not members of the House Democratic Caucus.
“The real worries reside on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, which could inflict more damage on Edwards this year than any other legislative group or faction,” he writes.
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.
