WikimediaBATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Louisiana House has agreed to raise more than $670 million for next year's budget by scaling back tax break programs and raising cigarette taxes.
The money would be used to stop cuts to colleges and health services — but it falls short of the $937 million goal set by House leaders.
Lawmakers voted for 11 tax bills Thursday after days of closed-door negotiations.
Bills passed include a 32-cent cigarette tax hike and new limits on the state solar tax credit program. Estimated to generate the most money are an across-the-board cut of 20 percent for most of the state's tax breaks.
The measures go next to the Senate, where they are expected to run into resistance because they don't match Gov. Bobby Jindal's guidelines for what he'd support.