Louisiana’s state senators opened their budget hearings Sunday with grim warnings from Gov. John Bel Edwards that the “clock is running out” on avoiding steep cuts to services, as he pushed back against House Republican claims that he’s exaggerating the problem.
Edwards told the Senate Finance Committee that House GOP leaders seem to have a lack of urgency about the problem looming on July 1, caused by the expiration of temporary taxes.
“Most concerning to me there continues to be a reluctance on the part of too many in the House, particularly in leadership, to recognize or deal with the budget at all,” the Democratic governor said.
House Republican leaders have suggested Edwards is inflating the size—and impact—of the shortfall to push a larger-than-needed tax package.
“They want to raise more taxes and extract more money out of the taxpayers’ back pocket,” Rep. Lance Harris, chairman of the House Republican Delegation, has said of the governor’s numbers.
The drop in general state tax revenue between this year and next is estimated to total $692 million, the governor said. But House GOP leaders expect a shortfall of about $539 million instead, saying Louisiana didn’t spend all the money collected this year.
