Louisiana won’t put a dollar figure on how deep its budget shortfall is until January.
As The Associated Press reports, though economists and lawmakers know the state’s tax collections are coming in lower than expected, Louisiana’s income-forecasting panel refused today to officially shrink its outlook. A downgrade would have required the governor and lawmakers to make deep cuts and budget rebalancing decisions within a month.
Gov. John Bel Edwards’ chief budget adviser, Jay Dardenne, calls today’s postponement by the Revenue Estimating Conference irresponsible. He says it ignores the inevitable need for millions of dollars in cuts and gives agencies less time in the budget year to cope with them.
“There’s no question we’re going to have to make cuts. The longer we wait, the worse it’s going to get,” says Dardenne, the Democratic governor’s commissioner of administration. “What we’re doing today is just turning a blind eye to reality.”
House Speaker Taylor Barras pushed for the delay, saying it gives the state more time to collect tax data and lawmakers more time to comb through cut scenarios. He worried about triggering a 30-day clock to make cuts, a deadline that, if missed, forces a special session.
“I’m looking for the most accurate number we can have before we start the clock ticking,” says Barras, R-New Iberia.
But economists gave the Revenue Estimating Conference little reason to believe Louisiana’s financial picture will improve amid a continuing downslide in Louisiana’s economy and unemployment that is hammering personal income and business tax collections.
“We’ve got a weakness in the underlying economy,” says the Legislature’s chief economist, Greg Albrecht.
Any new shortfalls for the current budget year that began July 1 will come on top of a $313 million deficit from last year that hasn’t been closed. The Edwards administration plan to eliminate last year’s deficit goes before lawmakers for a decision Thursday.
To change a state income forecast, the four-member Revenue Estimating Conference must agree unanimously. The membership split down the middle today, with Dardenne and Senate President John Alario seeking immediate revisions and Barras and LSU economist Jim Richardson wanting to wait a month.
With a unanimous decision impossible, the panel didn’t vote.
