Tax bills were rushed through in such frenzy in the final minutes of Louisiana’s special legislative session that Gov. John Bel Edwards, lawmakers and their financial advisers were still trying today to sift through the implications.
The Associated Press reports this year’s budget could be out of balance anywhere from $30 million to more than $50 million. But that figure remained unclear as the Legislature’s fiscal analysts tallied up estimates of how much the sales tax increases passed in the session’s closing minutes would raise.
“It’s hard for us to get a real fix on what the shortfall will be,” says Senate Finance Chairman Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte, even as he asked lawmakers to support the final budget rebalancing bill Wednesday evening.
The rebalancing plan assumes $200 million in Gulf oil spill recovery money will be paid to the state in the next three months. But the settlement deal that contains the money hasn’t been received. Another $82 million used to plug budget holes this year hinges on a refinancing of the state’s bond debt, which must be approved by the State Bond Commission.
Assuming those items happen as projected, Edwards and legislative leaders cited figures of a $30 million remaining gap.
However, that assumed nearly $24 million in account balances across state government would be used to fill budget holes. The bill containing that maneuver never received final passage in the hectic last minutes of the special session.
That means the true gap for this year’s budget could top $50 million.
Decisions for how to close that shortfall would need to happen quickly, with only three months remaining in the fiscal year.
