A $24.5 billion budget proposal for next year that uses dollars from anticipated increases in taxes and fees to protect public health care services and colleges from cuts received support Monday from the Louisiana Senate.
Senators’ 36-3 vote set up the dividing line between lawmakers in the House and Senate who are trying to cobble together a deal on budget and taxes for the fiscal year that begins July 1, with only days remaining in the legislative session.
Gov. Bobby Jindal, planning a presidential campaign, is threatening to veto the financing plans if the deal doesn’t meet parameters designed to protect his anti-tax record. So far, senators have been more receptive to meeting Jindal’s restrictions than the House.
The legislative session must end by 6 p.m. Thursday.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Jack Donahue described the package of budget and tax measures passed in the Senate as containing “enough money to fund higher education and health care as we think is necessary.”
“We tried to come up with reasonable solutions,” said Donahue, R-Mandeville.
The Senate version of next year’s budget contains at least $200 million more in spending than the House version, most of it poured into health services for the poor. House leaders support many of the spending add-ons but object to some of the Senate tax increases proposed to pay for them.
Both the House and Senate have agreed to raise cigarette taxes, close tax loopholes, shrink tax break programs and scale back business subsidies to drum up new money for next year’s budget.
The Senate is seeking a much higher tobacco tax rate that also would sweep in more types of tobacco products than the House sought. Also, the House disagrees with the Senate’s plan to make deeper reductions to Louisiana’s generous film tax credit program. The Senate also created a new $50 fee increase on car buyers.
More than $500 million of the budget proposal would be tied to patchwork financing not expected to be available a year later — down from $1.2 billion this year, but still assuring the budget negotiations start with new gaps next year.
“I don’t like a piecemeal approach to it, but I can’t do anything about that right now,” Donahue said.
