The republican controlled state legislature finally passed a budget during the special session called by governor John Bel Edwards. In fact the budget that passed was almost a duplicate that the House failed to pass in the regular session. This time the House passed the senate's budget with little changes. As a result the budget that passed was in tune with what the governor, the House democrats and the senate was pushing.
The budget could have passed the regular session if handled properly but the leader of the House would not take up a proposal to pass the senate budget and then closed the regular session. The down side of both sessions was the legislature's failure to address tax reform and other tax matters. It also failed to address the $1.2 billion projected budget deficit for fiscal year starting 7/1/18 because of expiring taxes that will take place next year That is a huge problem to over come without tax reform and a workable increase in state revenues.
There is also the question of the budget just passed by the legislature. Will they have to come back 6 months from now like they have done for the past 8 years and say the budget is out of balance. Or will this be the state budget that puts our fiscal house on the right path to fiscal responsibility.
The budget process still remains flawed because the republican leadership in both houses are not good at governing and that applies also to their party. And until they commit to a tax reform where everyone pays their fair share of all taxes, Louisiana's fiscal problems will only become worse.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
