Gov. John Bel Edwards says he believes there’s time in the special session to persuade House lawmakers to back more tax bills to lessen budget cuts, but the “clock is ticking.”
Bills that will raise around $220 million in the budget year that begins July 1 have received final passage, but so far, the House has balked at passing anything more.
“The sense of urgency ought to be increasing every day” for lawmakers, the Democratic governor says. The session must end by next Thursday.
Edwards told reporters today that he is still committed to funding TOPS, K-12 and higher education, and the state’s critical health care services, but the decision whether that gets done rests mainly with members of the House of Representatives, whom he says are obstructing efforts to raise revenue, while not offering plans to cut spending.
“Those same legislators who refuse to offer their own plan are somehow hoping money is just going to show up,” Edwards says. “And while everyone should be hopeful, I learned a long time ago that hoping is not really a course of action.”
Edwards thanked the legislators who are working in good faith and putting forth ideas to cut the state’s deficit now.
“The days of kicking the can down the road are over,” Edwards says.
The governor’s comments come one day after he learned the state appeared to be on track to collect $200 million less than the $359 million expected from corporate income and franchise taxes in the budget year that ends June 30. That could push the state’s $600 million deficit to $800 million.
“Unless it’s a real miracle, I don’t think we’re going to make it,” Jim Richardson, an LSU economist who serves as the independent member of the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference. Richardson met Thursday with Edwards, Senate President John Alario and House Speaker Taylor Barras, among others, to talk about how far business tax collections have fallen below the state’s official forecast.
This year’s budget was built on the income forecast. If the tax dollars fall short, the state would end the financial year with a deficit that would have to be closed in the next year.
Oil prices have rebounded a bit above the state forecast, but individual income and sales taxes are sluggish, so improving oil prices won’t bail out the state budget, Richardson says.
“There was no sign that they were going to make up that difference or allow us to offset in some other way,” he says.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
