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A top priority of the upcoming special legislative session should be to establish in law the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA). This will remove any doubt about the entity’s authority to plan the spending of the billions in recovery funding that has been granted by Congress so far. Reasonable and appropriate opportunity for legislative review of […]
The Senate is abusing the legislative process by totally reworking a House bill (HB 140) to mirror a controversial Senate bill (SB 105) in order to limit debate on the measure that would shrink the state’s Rainy Day Fund. The Senate bill (and now the House bill) would lower the cap on the Rainy Day […]
The state has found a way to meet the nearly $1 billion shortfall and balance its budget with a combination of cuts and tapped reserves. However, the cuts go deeper than some legislators would like, so they are proposing a budget gimmick to shrink the state’s Rainy Day Fund. SB 105, which would lower the […]
The 2005 Regular Session of the Legislature was primarily a fiscal session; however, it was also the first meeting of the new, hybrid fiscal and limited-general session that was created by a 2002 constitutional amendment. In addition to fiscal bills, legislators could introduce up to five non-fiscal bills dealing with state concerns and an unlimited […]
The administration proposal to increase the cigarette tax by $1.00 a pack would raise an additional $182 million next year and $292 million the following year. The tax would fund most of a $3,300 pay raise for teachers over the two years and give a 5% raise to college faculty and a $500 raise to […]
A bill to lower the cap on the state’s Rainy Day Fund could shift another $200 million in mineral revenues into the operating budget next year. This would be in addition to the $169 million in new money recently added to the revenue estimate. The bill was passed out of the Senate Finance Committee on […]
Efforts to derail the Stelly Plan are building steam for the legislative session. While there has been no ground swell of public opinion against the plan, some legislators are attempting to create one. Others apparently feel compelled to respond to the complaints of a vocal few among the small minority of taxpayers who experienced a […]