Louisiana’s senators prioritized home- and community-based services for the elderly and disabled Monday as they crafted their version of next fiscal year’s nearly $26 billion state operating budget, which would leave the TOPS college tuition program and safety net hospitals short.
As The Associated Press reports, the Senate Finance Committee heavily reworked the budget proposal passed by the House to finance state government in the financial year that begins July 1, which contains $600 million less than needed to continue all existing programs and services.
The budget proposal heading to the full Senate for consideration Wednesday would provide 48% of the financing needed to fully pay for all students eligible for TOPS. Safety net hospitals that care for the poor and uninsured would take cuts, with the state health department left to determine how to divvy up the reductions.
Finance Chairman Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte, said that “could lead to the closure of one of those hospitals. Absolutely, that could happen.”
Higher education, the LSU medical schools, K-12 public schools and the voucher program that provides taxpayer-financed tuition for private schools all would face cuts. Public safety and social service programs, state parks and museums and most areas of state government would be on the chopping block.
But the Medicaid “waiver” programs that provide home- and community-based care for the elderly and disabled wouldn’t take hits. That decision comes only days after parents of disabled children and children of elderly parents packed a committee hearing, begging senators to spare their health care services from cuts.
While the House largely took its own approach with the budget version it passed, senators worked more closely with Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration in rewriting the bill. Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, the governor’s chief financial adviser, said the Senate’s version of the budget was an improvement from the House proposal.
