The legislative session is going smoothly enough, but anxiety reigns beneath the surface as more lawmakers come to grips with the depth and multi-year length of the state’s reversal of fiscal fortune. With the operating budget having been reported out of committee Thursday in record time, consideration of it next week will mark a stress test of sorts for the administration-allied House leadership, which will try to fend off amendments to use additional one-time money to relieve budget shortfalls. House members, particularly Democrats, are expected to make some runs at raiding the megafund and other pools of money in order to shore up healthcare and higher education.
—For the past several weeks, national Democratic operatives have been trying without success to gauge Jim Bernhard’s interest in challenging Sen. David Vitter next year. But Bernhard’s actions spoke much louder than words this week when, as chairman and CEO of The Shaw Group, he announced that the Fortune 500 company would forego a $172 million tax incentive deal on a new plant project in Lake Charles. Bernhard explained he would rather see the Legislature invest that money in higher education instead. There is no indication the firm’s decision has anything to do with any political ambition on his part, but the impact on his approval ratings would be huge should he run.
—Stern criticism from LABI and newspaper editorials followed Gov. Bobby Jindal’s statement that he could support tying future increases in the homestead exemption to the rate of inflation. Their only consolation is that those bills might still be in committee when the session ends. Authors of the bills believe the leadership’s strategy is to keep them in committee, since it would be difficult for many members to oppose sending a proposed constitutional amendment to increase the exemption to a vote of the people.
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
