By Samuel Carter Karlin
BATON ROUGE — As black storm clouds circled the Capitol, belying the mood of a crucial extraordinary session that came to a head Wednesday evening, staffers sprinted from chamber to chamber, leaping over velvet ropes to deliver last-minute paperwork needed to finalize solutions to the state’s momentous budget crisis.
With less than 10 minutes left before the session ended at the statutorily mandated 6 p.m. deadline, Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, noticed an inconsistency in House Bill 62, the cornerstone of lawmakers’ plan to bridge the nearly $1 billion budget deficit.
LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau 