Louisianans will have to wait a bit longer for a solution to the state’s continuous budget deficits and midyear spending cuts, says Jeremy Alford in his latest column.
The wait for solutions to the budget problems, which date back to the national recession, has already been nine long years, Alford notes. And waiting a bit long won’t kill us, he says.
“Plus, there’s nothing else to do but wait,” Alford writes.
Currently, a special task force charged with crafting a policy agenda for the 2017 legislative session is facing its second deadline extension. It’s due to submit a plan by Nov. 1 or earlier. Meanwhile, Gov. John Bel Edwards and the Legislature are looking for ways to avoid a fiscal cliff in 2018—that’s when nearly $1.5 billion in temporary tax changes approved earlier this year come off the books, Alford says.
“It’ll also be a few more weeks until we learn just how big the deficit was for last fiscal year,” he writes. “It could be as high as $300 million, but we won’t know for sure until the state officially finishes its math for 2015-2016 and the Legislature’s joint budget committee meets on Oct 28.”
Exactly how much money will be raised this fiscal year from the latest round of temporary tax changes is another question, Alford says. Lawmakers are hoping it will be enough to cover all of the state’s budgeted expenses as well as the 2015-2016 deficit that will be formalized later this month.
“Of course, the nightmare scenario would be that the tax increases lawmakers bled over during two special sessions won’t be enough—even with the spending cuts implemented by the governor,” Alford writes, adding that’s currently not a forecasted possibility. “But those who have been tracking the state’s winding financials have come to expect anything.”
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.
