As House Appropriations took up the budget bill Monday, it sounded like the Governor and Approps chair Cameron Henry might finally be on the same page.
“The good news is: there are no fund sweeps. There are no one-time revenues lined up against recurring expenditures,” Governor John Bel Edwards told the Baton Rouge Press Club, while Henry told his committee:
“We do not have any use of one-time money for re-occuring expenses, or sweeping of funds. And I’ll give this administration for only spending the money that we actually have.”
Not so fast. First, Chairman Henry had a whole new appropriations bill, HB 105, pulling the Attorney General’s Office out of HB 1, and setting them up with a separate budget.
Noting that several statewide elected officials had complained about their lack of authority over their departmental budgets, Henry explained why he was doing this.
“I’d like to give a little of that authority to the actual people who are elected to do the job, and I think the Attorney General’s a good starting place for us to do that.”
Speaker Pro Tem Walt Leger had questions.
“Do you believe that we’re authorized to do that, by the constitution?” Leger asked.
“What makes you think we can’t?” Henry responded.
“The provision in the constitution that says that ‘there shall be one executive budget’,” Leger replied. “The Attorney General’s powers and authority are laid out in the constitution. It doesn’t talk about his budgeting authority. It talks about the Governor’s budgeting authority.
“Do you not think that this erodes the executive authority that the Governor has by constitution?”
“No,” Henry stated.
But Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne reminded the committee that there are only three separate branches of government – executive, legislative and judicial – and the state constitution says only they are authorized to have separate budgets.
“This is a clever, interesting, unconstitutional proposal that purports to elevate the Attorney General to a branch of government,” Dardenne said. “The bill that you’re looking at right now is unconstitutional in its intent, and its content.”
New Orleans Rep. Gary Carter had some questions for Dardenne.
“If the court strikes HB 105 as being unconstitutional, then we’ll have to refer to HB 1, and there will be no appropriation of funds there?” Carter asked.
“That’s right,” Dardenne replied.
“We’re running the risk of not appropriating any funds whatsoever for the attorney General’s office?” Carter pressed.
“That’s correct,” the Commissioner told him.
It should be noted that Henry and Attorney General Jeff Landry are Republicans, while Governor John Bel Edwards is a Democrat. Landry and Edwards have already butted heads a few times since both took office in January, with Landry issuing orders countermanding the Governor’s executive orders on coastal lawsuits and Common Core. After review, the AG ultimately agreed with the Governor’s decision.
I asked the Governor if he would veto this bill— if it makes it through the process. He said he doubts it will get past the Senate, but if it does…
“I don’t see that that bill is going to become law.”