“We’re not there yet.”
Governor John Bel Edwards says while he’s encouraged that the House has moved his centerpiece measure for filling the immediate budget hole, he’s not happy with the 18-month limit placed on the penny sales tax.
“I would hope and expect that that particular sunset provision will be altered,” Edwards told the media Friday morning.
He says he’s hopeful the Senate will fix it.
“Of course, as you know, the Senate almost always thinks things need to be modified.”
The Governor is deeply disturbed by the apparent reluctance of House leadership to look beyond just fixing the immediate problem.
“It isn’t that they can’t. There may be some who won’t.”
Edwards notes that the problems for the next fiscal year remain largely unaddressed.
“We cannot raise revenue in the regular session this year,” he explained. “But we are going to pass a budget, and that budget will only incorporate the revenue recognized by REC and any additional revenue that comes out of this special session. If that’s all that we do, we’re going to have catastrophic budget cuts for next year.”
There’s a lot of chatter among lawmakers about holding another special session to deal with the next set of problems, after they’re done with the regular session in June.
“The solutions aren’t going to be any different – or any better – later this year,” Edwards said, adding, “I can assure you we will have another special session to take care of it, but it will be after catastrophic cuts have gone into place.”
And what about long-term tax reform? The Governor says he’s been talking with legislators about that, as well.
“The only proposal that I’ve had from them is having a fairer, simpler tax code and tax structure. And that is as specific as it got.”
Copyright 2016 WRKF
