The Louisiana Legislature spent 15 days and nearly $1 million of taxpayer dollars on a special session that yielded virtually no solutions for solving the state’s $994 million shortfall or installing future spending reforms.
But was it worth it?
“Hell no, it wasn’t worth it,” Rep. Kenny Havard, R-St. Francisville, tells The USA Today Network of Louisiana. “We wasted a lot of time and money to do nothing—absolutely nothing.”
The special session ended late Monday, but it really came to a crashing halt Sunday night when a sales tax increase bill failed. The Senate was largely inactive because the tax bills had to originate and pass the House before they could be debated in the upper chamber.
Gov. John Bel Edwards called a 17-day special session on Feb. 19, asking legislators to pass nearly $1 billion in new permanent taxes to replace a portion of the more than $1.3 billion in temporary taxes set to expire on June 30. Each day of the session cost taxpayers about $60,000.
“It appears to me, unfortunately, that we came down here and didn’t do the job, so yes, it was a waste of taxpayer money,” says Terry Brown, I-Colfax.
