AP Wire

Session 2015: La. lawmakers have 2 months to solve a $1.6B question

by Melinda Deslatte, Associated Press

Piecing together a solution to the state's financial mess is the primary agenda for lawmakers returning to Baton Rouge on Monday for their two-month regular session.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Piecing together a solution to the state's financial mess is the primary agenda for lawmakers returning to Baton Rouge on Monday for their two-month regular session.

Legislators are grappling with a $1.6 billion budget shortfall and finding themselves in frayed relations with a term-limited governor who appears to be readying for a presidential campaign.

The House and Senate gavel in at noon. Gov. Bobby Jindal speaks to a joint gathering an hour later.

The Republican governor's offered a package of financial proposals for closing the budget gap in the fiscal year that begins July 1. His ideas include scaling back some tax break spending, selling the remaining share of the state's tobacco settlement and raising college tuition but covering the cost with a tax break paid from the proceeds of a cigarette tax hike.

Lawmakers haven't embraced the proposals and are working on their own ideas to avoid steep cuts to colleges and health care services. Ideas range from shrinking tax breaks for specific industries and closing loopholes that allow companies to skirt taxes to a year-long suspension of many of the tax breaks on the books.

"I'm not entirely confident about anything at this point, covering a $1.6 billion deficit. We're striving very hard to mitigate it. But there will be some pain I'm sure associated with this budget," said Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, chairman of the Republican Legislative Delegation.

The Jindal administration said it will consider other ideas than its own but they have to meet the governor's restrictions against tax increases.

Away from the budget discussion, Jindal has a light legislative agenda. His centerpiece proposal seeks to yank the Common Core education standards from Louisiana's public school classrooms. The issue has divided lawmakers and the education community.

"I'm hoping there's some compromise that will take care of some of the biggest concerns that people have," said Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego.

Efforts to derail the standards — benchmarks of what students should learn at each grade level in English and math — failed last year. And attempts to scrap Common Core through legal challenges also haven't been successful.

Louisiana's education superintendent and a majority of its state education board members support Common Core, which has been adopted by more than 40 states as a way to better prepare students for college and careers. Opponents say the standards are developmentally inappropriate and part of federal efforts to nationalize education.

Another divisive issue for the session drawing national attention is a religious objections proposal from newly-elected Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Bossier City.

Johnson's bill would prohibit the state from denying licenses, certifications, employment, contracts, benefits or tax deductions because of actions a person takes "in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction" about marriage.

While Johnson describes the measure as a protection for opponents of same-sex marriage from state penalties, gay rights groups and some legal experts counter that the proposal would allow discrimination against same-sex couples under state law.