Lawmakers enter the last day of the special legislative session today without a final budget in place and with the fate of the last tax bill in play dangling by a thread.
The session must end by midnight and it appears action could approach the witching hour, The News-Star reports.
House Bill 50 by Jack Montoucet, D-Scott—which Gov. John Bel Edwards hopes the Senate will amend to raise a final $88 million chunk of income taxes—remained stuck in the Senate after President John Alario declined to move it without a guarantee the House will concur. That remains unlikely.
The bill, passed and signed by Edwards, reduces the individual income tax deduction for net capital gains.
“I’m not going to ask my members to bleed on something that wouldn’t pass the House,” Alario said. “I want to make sure the House would be comfortable so we wouldn’t just be voting to be blowing in the wind.”
Though the governor’s staff told Alario they believe there are enough House votes to pass an amended bill, Alario seemed skeptical representatives would reverse course.
“We’re running our own (tallies),” he said.
House GOP Caucus Chairman Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, said he doesn’t believe an amended House Bill 50, which in its original form would raise about $13 million but would balloon to about $100 million with the change, can clear the House.
“Nothing has changed on my side that I know of, and I keep pretty close tabs,” Harris said.
That would leave about $258 million, according to the Senate, in new taxes to distribute to lessen coming budget cuts, less than half of the $600 million Edwards asked for when the session started. House members disagree, believing the total to be $284 million.
But either way, the supplemental budget bill that would distribute the money remains held by the Senate, where it will stay until a decision is made on House Bill 50.
The News-Star has the full story.
