“If you squint just so, and look out with the right kind of eyes, you can almost see the Legislature unfurling the skull and crossbones of the Jolly Roger,” writes Jeremy Alford in his latest column. “Lawmakers with swords between teeth are on the verge of hoisting the flag to temporarily replace our bleeding mother pelican. They are the Brothers Lafitte to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s William C.C. Claiborne, each calling for a bounty on the other.”
But the ship has not yet sailed, Alford says, and it actually may stay docked if history is any indication.
“Jindal, more missing duck than lame duck with a presidential campaign underway, still has his supporters. Especially in the House, which in some respects, in some corners, is divided against itself,” Alford notes. “Yet its leaders are meeting with the upper brass in the Senate already, which is no small feat. Usually autonomous, the chambers’ top pirates are making a real effort to get on the same page and strategize.”
Alford says the ideas they’re floating—which include veto overrides and holding bills hostage—would be politically dangerous during any other time.
“But there’s nothing routine about what’s happening in state government today,” he writes. “Over the next five fiscal years, beginning with the budget that has to be crafted in the spring session, shortfalls will range between $1.4 billion and $1.8 billion. Maybe more. Midyear budget cuts are also being implemented in an attempt to right the current fiscal year before it ends June 30.”
The latest threats coming from the Legislature involve forcing Jindal into a veto override, Alford says.
“The plan of attack starts with the passage of a slate of bills early enough in the session so that there’s time to reverse the governor’s veto pen,” he writes. “It would be historic; over the past century there have only been a very small handful of successful override votes.”
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.
