Louisiana legislative leaders are not on the same page about how to spend over a billion dollars in unexpected money available to the state between now and July of next year.
Senate leadership wants to plow more funding into road, bridge and university construction projects. House lawmakers favor using hundreds of millions of dollars to pay off retirement system debt for state employees, school teachers and higher education faculty.
The competing proposals both have barriers to getting approved.
Some versions of the House plan could jeopardize statewide pay raises for higher education faculty and K-12 teachers that Gov. John Bel Edwards has proposed. Lawmakers would also have less money available for popular transportation projects and higher education initiatives currently under consideration.
Meanwhile, the Senate’s plan to put more money into construction projects can’t move forward without overwhelming support from House lawmakers. To fund more projects, two-thirds of Senate and House members would have to vote to bust through a constitutionally mandated state spending cap. But lifting that spending limit could dissatisfy Republicans, who generally look for the state to spend less money.
Yet Senate leaders have made it clear that they would like to prioritize a lot of the money for transportation and higher education construction projects, especially those that have already been approved.
Several projects legislators have funded in recent years haven’t gotten off the ground because the cost of construction has increased. Senate Finance Committee Chair Bodi White, R-Central, says construction projects were also prioritized in 2007 and 2008, when lawmakers last voted to bust through a spending cap. Read the full story from Louisiana Illuminator.
