Louisiana lawmakers completed their special session on taxes late Thursday night after raising $263 million more for the state’s operating budget, lessening—but not completely closing—gaps in health and education programs.
The Associated Press reports the House and Senate fell far short of the revenue goal set by Gov. John Bel Edwards to raise $600 million more for the $26 billion budget that starts July 1. But on top of taxes boosted earlier this year, they had raised about $1.5 billion to shrink holes in the spending plan.
While he didn’t reach his target, Edwards says he was pleased with the work of lawmakers who at one point were faced with a budget shortfall nearing $2 billion in the upcoming year.
“We have been able, to a very large degree, to stabilize our budget and avoid catastrophic cuts,” the governor says. But he adds: “It is still not a pretty document.”
Weary legislators were ready to head home after 19 weeks of contentious work across three legislative sessions. According to lawmakers, the sessions were the longest consecutive tenure of legislative work in state history.
The largest tax measures passed in this latest special session will boost the taxes charged on health care organizations known as HMOs and lessen inventory tax breaks for businesses. Lawmakers also crafted a multibillion-dollar construction budget and removed sales taxes unintentionally charged in the earlier special session on items such as school athletic event tickets and prosthetic devices.
But it took until the session’s final hours to hammer out a plan for divvying up the money the House and Senate raised. The House gave final passage to the bill only a half hour before the midnight deadline.
The budget deal struck gives the safety-net hospitals that care for the poor the full amount sought by the Edwards administration, though the hospital operators say that’s not enough to fully cover services.
Lawmakers also agreed to cover only 70% of tuition costs for students in the TOPS college program, meaning students will have to pay more for school. It’s the first time since its creation that TOPS has taken a cut.
