Cuts to TOPS, health care expected in Gov. John Bel Edwards' budget proposal

[GMDino]

Quote:Gov. John Bel Edwards' will unveil his plan Tuesday to deal with Louisiana's latest budget gap that is expected to include reductions to the TOPS college scholarship program as well as cuts to hospitals that serve the poor and uninsured.


Edwards will present his budget proposal to the Louisiana House Appropriations Committee at 9 a.m. The governor's staff will give a similar budget overview to the Senate Finance Committee at 1 p.m. 

The governor has found savings in other areas of health care funding to help narrow the projected $750 million deficit for the fiscal cycle starting July 1.

Specifically, Edwards will use the more than $100 million he expects to save from Medicaid expansion to shore up other parts of the state budget. The governor's team has also found ways to reduce spending in the Department of Health and Hospitals, though specifics haven't been given yet. 

But additional reductions will still be needed. Every state agency and department is expected to take cuts. Most will see a reduction of between 10 percent and 30 percent in state funding, according to the governor's staff. 
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Why Louisiana could save $100M on Medicaid expansion
The savings could be used as a weapon against legislators trying to undermine the governor's plans to expand Medicaid.

Higher education leaders said last week that the state's public universities and college were bracing for reductions of 10 to 12 percent, which they said could send some into financial exigency, the academic version of bankruptcy. There also were concerns that some of the hospitals specifically set up to serve the poor and uninsured may have to close because of lack of funding.  

This is the eighth year in a row of state budget cuts following a drop off in post-Katrina tax revenue and a generous state income tax cut. In spite of several rounds of spending reductions during Gov. Bobby Jindal's tenure, the state's budgetary problems have only deepened. 

The Legislature has voted to raise taxes twice over the past 12 months to stave off deep reductions to government services, but Edwards says more is needed.

The governor wants to avoid some of the cuts he will put on the table by enacting more tax increases. He will be asking state lawmakers to come back into another special session after June 6 to raise more revenue. 

The Legislature's Democrats and several mainline Republicans believe another round of tax increases will be necessary to avoid some of the reductions to health care, hospitals, and higher education that Edwards is expected to lay out. 

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Edwards: TOPS will not be fully funded without taxes
The Louisiana Legislature will have to raise more taxes in a second special session this summer to avoid cuts to TOPS.

Legislators are already hearing about cutbacks to services in their districts. State Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, said he knows families of people with disabilities in his area who have been told their respite services and adult day care won't be available after July. 

Edwards, Democratic legislators, and most Senate Republicans would rather have the special session in June, so that state agencies, universities, and hospitals have more certainty about their budgets plans before the spending plans go into place July 1.

But House Republicans say Edwards and the Legislature should wait until October or November before having another special session because it will give everyone a better idea of whether additional taxes need to be passed.

"I don't see any appetite for a special session [to raise taxes] in June," Rep. Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said.  

The Louisiana House GOP refused to raise taxes as much as Edwards or the Senate leadership wanted during a special session held last month.

But conservative House Republicans who are resisting raising taxes again also haven't put forward any plan for budget cuts yet. Most say they don't want to cut TOPS or health care services but haven't released any alternative for coping with the budget shortfall. 

More information about how the Louisiana House hopes to cope with the budget reductions should be coming over the next few weeks.

The Legislature must pass a budget by June 6. If they don't like the governor's proposal for dealing with the $750 million shortfall, they have an opportunity to put their own plan forward before then. 

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/04/john_bel_edwards_budget_3.html

[Benton]

I wonder if that (cutting taxes, state going broke) had any relation to Jindal's short lived 2016 presidential bid?

And I'm expecting my state to go the same direction in a few years. We spent two terms under a Democrat mostly cutting spending with fingernail clippers — a little bit here, a little bit there. Now we've got a Republican who is looking to chainsaw everything, starting with education and working his way down. That normally in turn reduces jobs, which means less taxable income, which means more cutting, which reduces more jobs, means less taxable income, etc.