What will be the 2017 focus at Louisiana’s capitol?
“The state budget is so bad that you can’t allow yourself to be distracted by anything else,” Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs chairman J.P. Morrell says.
Senate President John Alario agrees.
“How do we get this state on a sound financial footing, where we don’t have to face these deficits year after year, and you’ve got a constant flow of revenues to take care of the basic needs of the state?” Alario says that’s the question lawmakers should be keeping in mind.
That means the fiscal session that starts in April will have to change Louisiana’s tax code and bring in more revenue.
“The simple fact of the matter is we’re not going cut our way to prosperity,” Governor John Bel Edwards says. “We have to stabilize our state and we have to start investing in those institutions that afford more opportunity.”
Morrell concurs, and says he believes Louisiana residents do, too.
“The public’s appetite for us cutting our way out of this has kind of reached a threshold.”
That doesn’t mean every legislator is going to be on board, however. Morrell points to a group in the House, and their actions last year.
“They punted on difficult tax votes, because they wanted to do tax reform. Tax reform is way harder than raising taxes.”
And the governor acknowledges he faces entrenched opposition.
“There are going to be those individuals in the legislature, no doubt. I think it’s a very small minority who would put partisanship over the welfare and well-being of our state,” Edwards says, hopefully. “Because if they want me to fail, then they’re wanting the state to fail, as well.”
And there could be a preview of the battle over tax reform, for depending on the depth of the current year budget hole, a special session to fill it may be needed next month.