The plan to balance Louisiana’s budget for the coming fiscal year released by Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration in late February is widely considered “Plan A” at the state Capitol, says Jeremy Alford in his latest column.
“Luckily, there are 25 other letters in the alphabet,” Alford writes.
As Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton said of Jindal’s initial proposals to plug a $1.6 billion shortfall: “I don’t know many people who wanted to file any of his bills.”
“That’s a far cry from the norm. The spending bills that lawmakers approve each spring traditionally hew closely to the governor’s budget proposals,” Alford writes. “Things are different this spring. Lawmakers appear left to plot their own course. That may prompt prognosticators and historians to temporarily redefine the notion of ‘legislative independence,’ which has historically meant bucking the administration. Or at least trying to do so.”
This year, Alford says, it’s more about lawmakers setting their own policy agenda while trying to stay within the governor’s evolving framework of what is allowable in terms of increasing revenue.
“Call it a poor man’s version of independence,” he writes. “This much has not changed: Jindal will veto any attempt at a net tax increase. He is willing, however, to support a tax increase if it is offset by either a tax cut, credit or rebate elsewhere in the budget. The concept is supposed to reflect ‘revenue neutrality,’ a term that may as well be a four-letter word around the Capitol. The policy structure is driving lawmakers crazy, but most recognize it as one that must be followed.”
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.
