Leave it to the Revenue Estimating Conference to put another year-end damper on state budget news. “I’m afraid the Grinch is fixing to step in,” Senate President John Alario said in anticipation of the REC meeting on Thursday. It looks like Alario was right. Based on figures he and other lawmakers have seen, personal income tax collections have fallen short and sales tax collections are flat. The $129 million in lowered revenue projections announced by the REC on Thursday come on top of an estimated $1 billion gap between revenues and projected expenses for the next fiscal year.
—A latecomer to the race for GOP caucus chairman, Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, won the election this week when early frontrunner Rep. Nick Lorusso, R-New Orleans, withdrew his candidacy. Harris put together support from fellow freshmen and members from outside of the New Orleans area, the traditional base of the delegation. According to legislative sources, Speaker Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles—who wanted to avoid division in the caucus—smoothed the way by appointing Lorusso to the Appropriations Committee.
They said it: “I used to love coming up here to hunt, but they won’t let me hunt anymore.” —Former Gov. Edwin Edwards, regarding the prohibition of convicted felons owning firearms, to KNOE-TV in Monroe
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
Editor’s note: John Maginnis will be on vacation for the holidays. His column is scheduled to return to Daily Report on Jan. 4.
