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The Legislature created the Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development (TIME) program in 1989 to fund 16 transportation-related projects. The projects included highway, bridge, port and airport improvements expected to spur economic development.
Like the weather, Louisiana’s fiscal condition has never been entirely predictable. State general fund expenditures have exceeded revenues in 10 of the last 20 years, sometimes by a sizable amount. In six of those years there were relatively large surpluses.
Although the Legislature concentrated new spending on priority items such as education and repair and maintenance, it “spent all the new found money and more” and “gave little thought to the future.”
The governor’s proposal to increase the homestead exemption narrowly made it out of the House Ways and Means Committee and awaits House floor action. HB 15 proposes a constitutional amendment to raise the homestead exemption from $7,500 of assessed value to $10,000.
The 1996 fiscal session ended up being a pleasant surprise. When the governor submitted his budget this spring, the theme was “doom and gloom.” However, with a federal reprieve on Medicaid funding, suspension of the exemptions for food and utilities from the 4% sales tax, and other factors, an additional $380 million in state funds […]
The Legislature and citizens made historic decisions when they approved constitutional amendments establishing the REC, requiring balanced budgets and reducing debt. These reforms now appear to be in danger of being weakened of even scuttled.
The governor has asked the Legislature to undercut two recent constitutional reform provisions in order to give public employees bonuses–payments clearly prohibited by yet another provision of the constitution.