Will 3rd time be a charm?

Published 6:00 am Sunday, June 17, 2018

After two failed attempts, Teche Area state legislators are hopeful that an upcoming third special session will solve the state’s budget crisis. 

As the state faces a $640 million fiscal cliff when more than $1 billion in temporary tax measures expire June 30, the Louisiana Legislature enters its third special session. The 10-day special session begins Monday when state legislators will attempt, once again, to reach agreement on a working state budget. 

“I’m hoping that we can go in and put politics aside and take care of the interests of the people, rather than those of special interests and petty politics,” Rep. Terry Landry, D-New Iberia, said. 

The third special must conclude by 6 p.m. June 27. It will be the seventh budget-focused special session since Gov. John Bel Edwards took office in January 2016.

Two previous special sessions, one in February and one in May, ended in gridlock, when conservative Republicans in the House refused to compromise on extending a half-cent sales tax to fund the shortfall. Under their proposal, the state sales tax rate would go from 5- to 4.33-percent on July 1, which was at odds with a Governor Edwards-supported proposal to set the new state sales tax at 4.5-percent. Both were rejected by House Republicans in the final minutes of the previous special session, which ended at midnight June 4.

“There are a lot of rationales and opinions out there — people who think the government is too big and we have to cut our way out of this deficit, people who just want to make sure Governor Edwards doesn’t score a ‘win’ and some people that will just support no tax no matter what,” Landry said. 

“There are a variety of reason for people’s decisions. I just think we were sent to Baton Rouge to make some tough decisions, and we have to do that. I don’t enjoy taxes either, but we have to fund the budget.”

Several compromises and proposals have been put on the table, Landry said, “and the legislature chose not to adopt any of them.”

“I’m hopeful,” Sen. Fred Mills, R-Parks, said. “I’m hoping, with some compromise, we can get enough revenue. If we can generate enough revenue to make those cuts minimal, I think we can get a compromise from all sides.”

Without some compromise on tax revenue, state funding cuts, including to hospitals and public safety, would be “pretty devastating to local services,” Mills said. 

“I’m hoping for a half-cent sales tax. If that takes place, we’d have about $110 million in cuts, and all sides would leave with — not a victory for everyone — but we’d live with a pretty good consensus,” he said. 

A bipartisan majority has supported the 4.5-percent sales tax, while a powerful faction of Republicans in the House has opposed it, including Rep. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, pushing for the lower 4.3 percent tax. Miguez did not return phone calls for comment about the upcoming special session. 

“Because the special session is narrow and short in terms of the scope of time, the only viable alternative we have that will not affect vital services, TOPS and our public safety is to renew the sales tax to take us off of fiscal cliff,” Landry said. “Then we can look at the state’s tax structure next year and see where cuts need to be made.” 

“With no new revenue, we’re looking at 84 percent cuts to the DA and to our sheriffs,” Mills said. 

“If this isn’t funded at the state level, the people at the local service level — it’ll have to be done at the local level, so it’ll really put a burden on our local parishes. Some people just want to cut, cut, cut, but if you talk to guys like Bo (Duhe, the 16th Judicial District Attorney, covering Iberia, St. Martin and St. Mary parishes) and see what it means to them — that shows logistically how those cuts are really devastating.” Duhe did not return phone calls.