With a new political landscape at the State Capitol and uncertainty coloring every part of the process, it has sometimes been difficult during this year’s legislative sessions to uncover who’s really pulling the strings, Jeremy Alford writes in his latest column.
Independent leadership in the House and turnover brought about by term limits are partly to blame, he says.
“But together with Louisiana’s usual dose of politics, they’ve created the kind of confusion commonplace to battlefields,” Alford writes. “With controversies exploding in the air and warring factions knocking steel to armor, lawmakers have had to shout the question loudly more than once this year: “Who’s in charge around here?”
In terms of the second special session that convened Monday night, the House will be setting the early pace and largely controlling the first half of the lawmaking ahead, Alford writes. It helps that tax bills must originate in the House, but this kind of control is about personalities as well, he says.
“A band of conservatives in the lower chamber present Gov. John Bel Edwards and the Senate with their tallest hurdle,” Alford writes. “Team Edwards will have to find a way to negotiate with this group to accomplish the most important tasks in the special session, particularly on any measure that seeks to increase taxes.”
Alford also says a fiscal tug of war also is playing out, noting that Edwards set the agenda for a special session and wants lawmakers to generate $600 million in new revenue to keep next year’s budget afloat.
Senate Finance Chairman Eric LaFleur, meanwhile, has asked senators to come up with at least $450 million, Alford writes. And in the House there’s a bipartisan plan coming together that calls for just $300 million in new revenue.
“If the Legislature ends up on the smaller side of that range, the real issue will not be what is passed to raise money, but how the limited amount of cash produced will be spread around in the supplemental budget bill,” he says.
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.
