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While last year’s Hurricane Ian devastated Florida and the Carolinas, Louisiana experienced a quiet hurricane season in 2022. This year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts “near normal” hurricane activity in the Atlantic for the season that started June 1 and will end November 30.
Part 4 of a four-part series addressing public employee compensation in Louisiana.
Louisiana lawmakers wrapped up their work in a contentious regular session with a chaotic, last-minute flurry of votes on a budget plan that charted spending for the next year, divvied up $2.2 billion in short-term cash and completed the only must-do item for legislators.
Louisiana’s surging tax collections still haven’t tapered off, with the newest forecasts pouringadditional dollars into state coffers and further complicating tense legislative negotiations overwhat to do with all the cash.
Spending plans crafted by Republicans leaders in the Louisiana House trade most of the governor’s recommended education investments to instead pay down retirement debt, setting up a financial clash with senators who want a different approach.
Louisiana’s newest round of budget negotiations began with a $45.7 billion proposal from Gov. John Bel Edwards that sidesteps worries about the impending financial gaps awaiting officials next term and would raise spending on education from preschool through college.
Federal pandemic aid is disappearing, but state tax collections continue to surge, giving Gov. John Bel Edwards and the Louisiana Legislature $1.6 billion in unspent cash from the last and current budget years and further boosting the money available for next year’s spending plan