Louisiana Senate passes $24.5B budget package for next year
Melinda Deslatte, Associated Press
WikimediaBATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A $24.5 billion budget proposal for next year that uses dollars from anticipated increases in taxes and fees to protect public health care services and colleges from cuts received support Monday from the Louisiana Senate.
Senators’ 36-3 vote set up the dividing line between lawmakers in the House and Senate who are trying to cobble together a deal on budget and taxes for the fiscal year that begins July 1, with only days remaining in the legislative session.
Gov. Bobby Jindal, planning a presidential campaign, is threatening to veto financing plans used to balance the budget if the deal doesn’t meet parameters designed to protect his anti-tax record. Any vetoes would leave higher education and health care subject to slashing. So far, senators have been more receptive to meeting Jindal’s restrictions than the House.
The legislative session must end by 6 p.m. Thursday.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Jack Donahue described the package of budget and tax measures passed in the Senate as containing “enough money to fund higher education and health care as we think is necessary.”
“We tried to come up with reasonable solutions,” said Donahue, R-Mandeville.
The Senate version of next year’s budget contains at least $200 million more in spending than the House version, most of it poured into health services for the poor. House leaders support many of the spending add-ons but object to some of the Senate tax increases proposed to pay for them.
Both the House and Senate have agreed to raise cigarette taxes, close tax loopholes, shrink tax break programs and scale back business subsidies to drum up new money for next year’s budget.
The Senate is seeking a much higher tobacco tax rate that also would sweep in more types of tobacco products than the House sought. Also, the House disagrees with the Senate’s plan to make deeper reductions to Louisiana’s generous film tax credit program. The Senate also created a new $50 fee increase on car buyers.
Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, was one of a few Democratic senators who opposed the budget proposal.
She described it as “like writing a check and not knowing how much money is in the account” because it balances only if the House agrees to raise the same amount of revenue as the Senate did with a separate set of more than a dozen tax measures.
“It’s very irresponsible to pass a budget without knowing how much money we have. And today we don’t know how much money we have,” she said.
More than $500 million of the budget proposal would be tied to patchwork financing not expected to be available a year later — down from $1.2 billion this year, but still assuring the budget negotiations start with new gaps next year.
“I don’t like a piecemeal approach to it, but I can’t do anything about that right now,” Donahue said.
Tax changes approved by the House would have raised about $615 million. Adjustments to the bills by senators would add at least $200 million on top of that.
The House used its revenue increases to protect higher education from cuts. The Senate used its additional money to fill gaps in the LSU hospital privatization deals and to keep the LSU medical schools in New Orleans and Shreveport from absorbing millions in insurance and retiree costs from the privatization deals.
Generating complaints in the House is the Senate’s removal of a proposed $36 million inflationary increase in spending for K-12 public schools to pay for other programs.
Lawmakers vote to lessen Louisiana’s marijuana penalties
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Lawmakers have agreed to lower Louisiana’s tough penalties for marijuana possession, ending the possibility someone could be jailed 20 years for repeatedly getting caught with small amounts of the drug.
With a 74-19 vote Monday, the House gave final passage to the proposal by Rep. Austin Badon, a New Orleans Democrat. The Senate already had approved the bill in a 24-13 vote. Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal has said he supports the changes and will sign them into law.
“We’ve said all along we are fine with the idea of providing rehabilitation and treatment for nonviolent drug offenders. I think that this bill does that, and I think that’s good for those offenders. I think it’s good for taxpayers,” the governor said recently.
The final version of the bill was crafted by Sen. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans, who worked with the sheriffs association and the district attorneys association on the law changes. While neither group backed the bill, they also didn’t object, easing the path to passage.
Currently, a person caught with marijuana faces a misdemeanor sentence of up to six months in jail. A second offense is a felony carrying a sentence of up to eight years in prison, and someone convicted for a third offense can be locked up for 20 years.
Critics say Louisiana locks up too many people for a minor offense costing the state millions in prison costs.
Under Badon’s bill, someone caught with less than 14 grams of marijuana will face up to 15 days in jail and up to six months if caught with less than 2.5 pounds but more than 14 grams. A second offense conviction will drop to a misdemeanor with a sentence of no more than six months.
If someone gets caught on a second offense — and it’s been more than two years since the first conviction — that again will be treated like a first offense. A repeat offender could only tap into that so-called “cleansing period” once.
“This is a compassionate, just and smart approach to sentencing reform,” Badon said.
By conviction on a third offense of marijuana possession, a felony charge will kick in, carrying a smaller penalty than in current law, however, of up to two years in prison. The maximum penalty on later offenses will drop from 20 years in prison to eight years.
As a point of compromise with law enforcement, the bill will create a new felony possession charge carrying a minimum sentence of two years in prison and a maximum of up to 10 years for anyone caught with more than 2.5 pounds and less than 60 pounds of marijuana. For 60 pounds or more, other laws cover the crime.
“This does it very, very smartly,” said Rep. Joe Lopinto, R-Metairie, chairman of the House criminal justice committee. “We’re decreasing some of the penalties on the smaller amounts.”
The sentencing changes take effect as soon as the governor signs the bill. — MS, AP
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Leges seek contract oversight
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Lawmakers are again seeking review and approval authority over state consulting contracts signed across state agencies. But it’s unlikely the bill can escape a veto since Gov. Bobby Jindal killed the same proposal last year.
With a 36-0 vote Monday, the Senate gave final passage to a proposal (House Bill 30) by Rep. Jerome “Dee” Richard, an independent from Thibodaux, giving lawmakers more oversight.
Most consulting and professional services contracts with a state general fund price tag topping $40,000 a year would need approval from the Legislature’s joint budget committee before they could begin, under the bill.
Richard has sought unsuccessfully to curb the contracts for five years. Treasurer John Kennedy also has pushed the bill, saying Louisiana spends millions on unnecessary contracts.
“Rep. Richard has worked tirelessly to bring sunshine to the thousands of consulting contracts that are hidden from view. Justify the worthwhile contracts to the public and get rid of the rest,” Kennedy said in a statement.
If the Legislature’s joint budget committee doesn’t request a review within 30 days from receiving information about the contract, it will be deemed approved. If the committee rejects or reworks a contract, any savings will be directed to a fund for higher education.
The bill expires in 2018, unless lawmakers choose to renew the provisions.
BP funds earmarked for higher ed
Both the House and Senate have unanimously agreed to earmark some future Gulf oil spill recovery money for Louisiana’s college campuses.
The proposal (House Bill 386) by Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, could steer to public colleges some of the money Louisiana is expected to receive from BP to pay for economic damage caused by the 2010 spill.
Those dollars are separate from other civil penalties from violations of environmental laws, money that’s required to be set aside for coastal restoration and protection projects.
Lawmakers already have set aside the first $1 billion in economic damages money to repay Louisiana’s “rainy day” fund and an elderly trust fund that have been used to plug budget gaps in recent years. Leger’s bill would target oil spill money above that, place it into a fund and require the interest earnings be spent on higher education.
The economic damages claims are the subject of ongoing federal litigation, and it’s unclear when any of the money might be available to the state.
One more vote of the House is needed to send the bill to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s desk.
Citizenship test for prospective grads
Louisiana’s public high school students will have to take the same civics exam as immigrants who seek U.S. citizenship.
The bill (House Bill 34), sponsored by Sen. Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, received final passage with a 39-0 Senate vote Monday and heads to the governor.
Supporters of the bill said high school students often have little knowledge about U.S. government and history and requiring them to take the citizenship test could help remedy that.
As first proposed, the bill contained a provision that would have prevented students from graduating if they didn’t pass the test. But that requirement was stripped from the bill after education associations objected.
The testing requirement will begin in the 2016-2017 school year.