LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau

Devon Sanders and Joby Richard

Joseph Rallo, the state’s departing higher education leader, said Thursday that parents and students should “feel outraged” that lawmakers failed for a second time to raise enough revenue to fully fund TOPS and avoid significant cuts at universities.

The Legislature passed a budget Monday that would slash funding for TOPS scholarships by 30 percent, or $85 million, and cut operating funds for universities, which had already declined substantially over the last decade, by $96 million.

“I am leaving after three and half years, and nothing has gotten better. Nothing,” said Rallo, who was a top official at universities in Texas and Illinois before becoming Louisiana’s commissioner of higher education in 2015.

“I think it is a very unfortunate position for the state, for the parents, for the students, and at the end of the day, for the economy,” he said in a series of interviews.

Read the story in KALB.

Paul Braun and Kaylee Poche

Gov. John Bel Edwards on Wednesday outlined cuts to higher education, criminal justice and assistance to needy families in a budget passed by the Legislature and made a pitch for renewing a half-penny of sales taxes to avert most of them.

He made the comments in his first public appearance since he sharply criticized House leaders at a news conference minutes after the dramatic conclusion of a special session Monday night.

Lawmakers passed a budget that would have funded the programs if there were enough revenue, but efforts to pass a revenue bill collapsed in the House.

Edwards struck a more optimistic tone Wednesday about raising revenue and funding the programs in an expected third special session.

Read the story in The Daily Advertiser.

Kaylee Poche and Devon Sanders

Emotions were raw Monday night as the special session collapsed after the the Legislature was unable to raise major revenue to fund the state’s budget priorities.

In the final minutes of the session, an attempt to reconsider a bill that would have increased revenue by $504 million was blocked by Rep. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, who acknowledged that he stayed at the microphone to use up the remaining time allotted for the session.

Democrats and several Republicans blamed the collapse on both Seabaugh for running out the clock in the final moments and Lance Harris, R-Alexandria and the chairman of the Republican Legislative Delegation, for holding onto his bill that would have raised less revenue until the final half hour, essentially leaving no time to reconsider the other revenue bill.

“We saw the leader of the Republican delegation purposefully held the bill all night,” Rep.Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, said in an interview. “We had another Republican member that denied us the opportunity to vote.”

Read the story in The Natchitoches Times.

Paul Braun, Tryfon Boukouvidis and Drew White

The Legislature passed a budget late Monday with deep cuts to TOPS and higher education minutes before the tense end of a special session, and House Republicans rejected attempts to raise revenue to soften the cuts.

The final budget bill would slash funding for TOPS scholarships by 30 percent, cut spending on public universities by $96 million and impose across-the-board cuts on other state agencies.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said he would consider vetoing the bill. He blamed some of the House Republicans, referring to them as “that extreme caucus of no standing in the way of the state of Louisiana.” He added that he would call legislators back later this month for a third special session to try again to raise more revenue.

Democrats in both chambers and some Republicans were shocked and angry when Rep. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, seized the microphone at 11:59 p.m. to prevent a second vote on a bill that would have raised $540 million to avert most of the cuts.

Read the story in WWL-TV.

Paul Braun and Drew White

It’s only one-sixth of a penny.

That’s all that divides the House and the Senate over how much of an expiring penny of sales tax to extend.

That extra sixth of a penny would cost Louisiana residents 17 cents on a $100 purchase. If you shop for school supplies for a high school student, it would add 67 cents to the average $392 bill. It would boost the cost of a $1,299 MacBook Pro by $2.21 and add $69.70 to the $41,000 sticker price of a well-equipped Lexus ES sedan.

It also would raise $150 million a year to avert cuts to TOPS, health care, and other services.

Read the story in KALB.

Paul Braun and Devon Sanders

The Legislative Black Caucus succeeded in a last-minute bid to revive an expansion of the state’s earned income tax credit in a bill passed by the Senate Sunday.

The change would cost the state $21 million. But caucus members argued that it was needed to offset some of the impact on the working poor of a possible extension of half of the penny of sales tax set to expire this summer.

Sen. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans, said the link between the earned income tax credit and the sales tax renewal could determine the fate of the special session.

“I think the House has to make a decision as to whether they want to risk the sales tax by not allowing for the increase in EITC,” Morrell said. “That’s not just a Senate problem. There are a tremendous amount of House members, in particular in the Black Caucus, that struggle with the idea of continuing a half-penny of sales tax.”

Read the story in WWNO.

Tryfon Boukouvidis and Kaylee Poche

The Senate on Sunday approved a budget 38-1 that would fully fund TOPS scholarships, public universities and hospitals for the poor while imposing 2 percent cuts on other agencies.

The Senate also passed 29-9 a revenue bill that would raise $541 million by extending half of the extra cent of sales tax that is set to expire on July 1. The half of a cent would expire in 2025.

The Senate effectively challenged the House to renew more taxes than it would like to avoid more sweeping cuts as the special session comes to a close Monday. A version of the bill passed by the House last week would raise $396 million, partly by extending one-third of a cent of the sales tax.

But Sen. Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte, said in an interview Sunday night that he does not expect the House to agree to some of the changes, setting up a tense and dramatic finale for the sixth special session in two years.

Read the story in KTBS.

Tryfon Boukouvidis

The Louisiana Senate Finance Committee today questioned a Republican budget passed by the House that would fully fund hospitals for the poor but slash funding for other health programs by $116 million.

Including federal matching dollars, the total cuts to the Louisiana Department of Health would amount to over half a billion dollars, compromising mental health services and substance abuse treatment programs when temporary revenue measures expire on July 1.

“We can’t continue to cut and appropriately meet the needs of the people of this state,” said Health Secretary Rebekah Gee.

The hearing illustrated the continuing divide between House Republicans, who are focused on cutting the size of state government, and many senators, who want to raise more revenue to avoid cuts in health care and the TOPS scholarship program.

Read the story in Gambit Weekly.

Tryfon Boukouvidis

It was payback time in a House committee on Thursday.

After Senate Democrats chastised Republican leader Rep. Lance Harris of Alexandria on Wednesday over a bill that raised less revenue than the governor says is needed, a Republican-led House committee on Thursday grilled two of those Democrats and rejected or deferred bills they had proposed.

The House Ways and Means Committee put off a bill by Sen. Jay Luneau, D-Alexandria, and voted down two bills by Sen. Jean-Paul Morrell, D-New Orleans, the chair of the Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee, adding to the tensions between the chambers as they rush to see if they can agree on revenue and budget bills before the special session ends on Monday.

Both senators had intensely questioned Harris’ budget numbers Wednesday night and rebuked him for refusing to make changes to raise significantly more revenue to address the $648 fiscal cliff that is projected to occur when temporary tax measures expire on July 1.

Read the story in KALB.

 

Kaylee Poche

Read the story in The Ouachita Citizen.