In his opening address for the three-week special session that opened Sunday, Gov. John Bel Edwards urged lawmakers to avoid partisan gridlock as they work to balance the state’s deficit-riddled budget.
The Associated Press reports the governor told lawmakers their decisions during the special session “will determine the course of Louisiana’s future.”
“Don’t simply back into your corners and dig in your heels. That is the very best way to ensure dysfunction and failure,” the Democratic governor told a joint gathering of the majority Republican House and Senate.
But two of Louisiana’s prominent Republican politicians were targets in Edwards’ speech. The Associated Press reports that while Edwards never named former Gov. Bobby Jindal and state Treasurer John Kennedy directly, he took thinly-veiled swipes at both.
Edwards offered up digs at Jindal, who he blamed for helping to create the state’s financial troubles and at Kennedy for his continued claims that those troubles could be fixed without tax hikes.
“Blunders of the past have led us to this day of reckoning,” Edwards, a former state lawmaker, said. “Now is the time to make the more difficult, right decisions instead of the easier wrong ones that appease out-of-state special interests or serve a narrow political agenda.”
The governor criticized his predecessor’s administration for its budgeting maneuvers, saying they “exacerbated” Louisiana’s financial problems. Edwards promised to work with lawmakers, saying he wouldn’t be in another state “pursuing some other position.” The words were also a strike at Jindal, who was heavily criticized by both Republicans and Democrats as making decisions with an eye toward his unsuccessful bid for the White House.
The governor also took a swipe at Kennedy, who is running for the U.S. Senate and who has been one of the most vocal opponents to Edwards’ tax plans.
“There are some that will tell you that we merely have a spending problem, that simply ‘tightening our belts’ will eliminate this historic deficit. But let me be clear, we cannot just cut our way out of this crisis,” Edwards said. “It simply isn’t possible to always do more with less, because if it were, one day, you could do everything for nothing.”
Kennedy has said Edwards’ tax proposals would wreck Louisiana’s economy. In office since January, Edwards wants to end Louisiana’s perpetual budget troubles with a wide array of tax proposals that could have most people and businesses paying more to the state treasury. Republicans, particularly in the House, have shown resistance to tax hikes so far, setting the stage for a possible partisan struggle over the size and shape of government.
The 25-day session must wrap up by March 9. The immediate financial problem facing Edwards and lawmakers is a budget gap ranging from $850 million to $950 million. The $25 billion budget must be rebalanced by June 30, either with additional money or cuts. Next year’s shortfall is even larger, topping $2 billion in the fiscal year beginning July 1, when one-time patchwork dollars used to pay for expenses disappear.
To balance this year’s budget, Edwards wants to tap into $128 million from Louisiana’s “rainy day” fund and to redirect $200 million in Gulf oil spill recovery money earmarked for a lawsuit settlement. He’s also recommending $158 million in cuts—and the governor said those cuts should quiet critics who claim he isn’t proposing to reduce government spending. For the rest of this year’s gap and for next year’s shortfall, he’s largely turned to taxes.
See a full transcript of Edwards’ complete opening address.
