The Louisiana House created new hurdles for the governor to get his spending plans through the chamber, as tensions continued to escalate between the Jindal administration and House leaders over proposed cuts. Under a new rule adopted in a 60-42 vote, it will take a more difficult, two-thirds vote in the House to use certain amounts of one-time dollars to pay for ongoing expenses, an action Gov. Bobby Jindal proposes doing in the 2011-12 budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Previously, there were no restrictions in the House on whether one-time money could be used in the state’s annual operating budget. Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles, proposed the new requirement, saying Louisiana has “become addicted” to using short-term, stopgap cash to pay for state services. That’s not an appropriate way to pull together an annual spending plan, he says. Regarding the new rule, Geymann says, “This does not prevent us from using those dollars. It just makes it a little more difficult.”
Today’s poll question: Should there be restrictions on using one-time money to balance the Louisiana budget?
