Senate to take up budget fix Sunday

A bill backed by House Republicans to close the $304 million midyear budget deficit made it out of the Senate Finance committee Saturday unchanged. However, amendments are a certainty when it is debated on the Senate floor Sunday.
(Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUOhfpRGCbY&feature=youtu.be)
Though the current version of House Bill 3 would enable the Legislature to use $74.6 million from the Rainy Day Fund, Senate President John Alario advocated for a compromise between the governor’s suggestion, $119 million, and the anticipated $74.6 million in the HB3.
That withdrawal from that savings account, officially known as the Budget Stabilization Fund, but nicknamed Rainy Day, is contingent on a companion measure, House Concurrent Resolution 2, also will be debated Sunday.
It requires 70 votes in that chamber to pass and sponsor Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, expressed concern that he could drum up that many votes with conservatives wanting a lower number and Democrats seeking something more in tune with the governor’s figure.
This special session of the Legislature must resolve the $304 million shortfall by midnight Wednesday.
The Finance Committee hearing gave state agency heads and other stakeholders an opportunity to express concerns about the newly drafted plan, which did not happen when it came before the House Appropriations Committee Wednesday.
Testimony from the departments of Health, Corrections and Education urged senators to move closer to the governor’s original proposal, which used money from the Rainy Day Fund to spare them from more severe cuts.
“The problem is we can’t take any more cuts,” Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc said. “If we’re going to reduce our budget, we’ve got to reduce our prison population.”
HB3 takes $17.5 million of attrition money, funds leftover from unfilled state jobs, to close the budget gaps, some $12 million more than the governor’s estimate, to close budget gaps, while HB3 proposed $17.5 million. The Legislative Fiscal Office testified the attrition money would likely land between $5 and $10 million.
“If those jobs are empty and can remain empty until July 1, then that is a real cut,” committee member Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, said. “That’s an opportunity that we should continue to pursue.”
But Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne said it was unlikely there was more than $5 million available from that fund.
For the Office of Juvenile Justice, 124 vacant positions for a new Juvenile facility in Bunkie were never allocated money in the original budget, Deputy Secretary James Bueche said, thus there would be no attrition money to return to the general fund.
DHH Secretary Rebekah Gee called HB3 “sloppy,” and said its amendments were conjured too quickly to make responsible cuts to state departments. HB3 was the exact duplicate of HB1, the governor’s proposal, with the exception of amended numbers inserted by House members.
“I’m a surgeon by training,” Gee said. “I like to use a scalpel and not a chainsaw.”
Under the plan, Gee said her department would have to make cuts to adult pharmacy, mental health services and rural hospitals.
Some Republican senators said the debate was not about the use of the Rainy Day Fund at all, but rather the size of a growing Louisiana government.
“It is impossible to believe that with the amount of natural wealth and the amount of poverty we have that we’re doing government right,” Sen. Conrad Appel, R-Metairie, said.
Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, D-Lafayette, called the budget situation a “systemic problem” to be fixed in the regular session of the Legislature that begins in April, but advocated the use of Rainy Day money to see the state through the end of the fiscal year.