With the House’s first round of tax votes completed late last week, lawmakers now are turning to how to spend the estimated $615 million that would be generated by those actions—and whether the House should pass more tax changes to drum up additional money.
As The Associated Press reports, the House Appropriations Committee will craft its version of next year’s budget today; it will plug into that budget the money expected to be produced by the reductions to tax breaks and the cigarette tax increase approved by the full House last week.
But the dollars aren’t enough to close the estimated $1.6 billion shortfall in the fiscal year that begins July 1, and lawmakers differ on how the money should be split among colleges and health care services and where budget cuts should fall.
House leaders estimate they needed $940 million in new revenue. Senators say the figure is even higher. Senate President John Alario said on Friday that he hopes the House—where most revenue-raising bills must begin—considers more legislation to further bolster financing.
Gov. Bobby Jindal, meanwhile, is looking to the Senate to tweak the House approach to conform to his guidelines for tax changes he’s willing to support. The Republican governor, who guards his record of refusing to raise taxes, won’t agree to anything considered a net tax increase by national anti-tax activist Grover Norquist.
Although some House-approved bills meet the guidelines and their loopholes, others clearly don’t, such as the 32-cent cigarette tax increase. But Jindal said on Friday there’s time in the remaining five weeks of the legislative session to raise money without violating his parameters.
“I think by the end of the process we can have a balanced budget that doesn’t raise taxes, that invests in higher education and health care. I think the important thing is that the process continues to move along,” the governor said. “It’s important not to view these bills in isolation.”
Several House leaders suggested they’d be willing to buck the governor on the tax bills and override Jindal’s veto if he didn’t support their approach. But the four biggest-ticket tax changes passed by the House, estimated to generate $530 million next year, didn’t get the two-thirds support—70 votes—needed for an override.
Jindal indicated he believes lawmakers ultimately will comply with his guidelines, saying of an override vote: “I don’t think we’re going to get to that scenario.”
For now, with $670 million to put toward next year’s shortfall, Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Fannin, R-Jonesboro, said he’ll prioritize higher education above everything else, working to keep colleges from any cuts. After that, he said, he’ll seek to offset as many health care reductions as he can.Others think the cuts should be spread more evenly.
