BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Senate proposal that appeared to get lawmakers closer to rebalancing this year's budget without deep cuts to colleges and health services has been upended.
Senate Finance Chairman Eric LaFleur says a $75 million hole has been blown into the plans.
At issue is a bill both the House and Senate had relied on to generate money.
The measure would change the payment schedule under which businesses turn over sales tax collections to the state. By shifting the calendar, lawmakers and Gov. John Bel Edwards hoped to generate $75 million before June 30.
But LaFleur said Friday the Legislature's financial analysts now believe the bill won't generate money for the current budget year.
That means a gap senators thought they had whittled to $67 million now may top $140 million.