Louisiana lawmakers are facing a full-court press from higher education leaders, hospital administrators, advocacy groups and others trying to escape budget cuts in the upcoming special session called to close the state’s $304 million midyear deficit.
The Associated Press reports that most have a singular message: Use the state’s “rainy day” fund to lessen the slashing.
“We’re in the process of lobbying all our legislators. We’re absolutely saying if you vote against the rainy day fund, you’re voting to significantly cut rural hospitals,” says Randy Morris, owner of a 35-bed hospital in Oak Grove and chairman of the Rural Hospital Coalition board.
In the budget-rebalancing session that begins Monday, Gov. John Bel Edwards is proposing to use nearly $120 million—the maximum allowed—from the reserve account to help close the gap in Louisiana’s $27 billion operating budget.
He’s getting resistance from some GOP lawmakers who say Louisiana should more deeply cut its spending in the budget year that ends June 30, rather than rely on a savings account to pay for ongoing programs.
Morris says if lawmakers don’t tap the rainy day account, he expects the state’s 48 rural hospitals to be on the chopping block.
LSU President F. King Alexander says he has found significant support in his conversations with lawmakers for shielding campuses from slashing, after 16 budget cuts in the last nine years, including one earlier this fiscal year.
“I see the rainy day fund as legislative reserves that can help us,” Alexander says. “We have a much better chance of not getting cut, and higher education certainly would be supported more, if the Legislature uses the rainy day fund.”
