Natalie Anderson and Kaylee Poche /LSU Manship School News Service
House Speaker Taylor Barras on Tuesday proposed new spending caps and other cost-saving measures that the Republicans would like to couple with any revenue-raising measures that Gov. John Bel Edwards seeks to deal with a looming state budget shortfall.
The speaker’s proposals included adjusting the caps that limit the growth in state spending and asking voters to approve a constitutional amendment that would give the Legislature the authority to raise or lower the caps.
Barras, R-New Iberia, said Republican lawmakers also want to create requirements for Medicaid recipients to work and to pay part of their medical costs through co-payments to doctors or hospitals. He also called for improving a state website that makes state spending data accessible to the public.
Barras made the proposals in a letter to the governor, who has said he will call a special legislative session in February to deal with an $800 million budget shortfall only if he thinks that he and the Republican lawmakers can agree on how to solve the problem.
“Seeking additional revenue without reforming our spending habits is no way to avoid future cliffs,” Barras said in the letter. “House members feel strong about coupling these reforms to revenue measures being proposed in an effort to achieve a balanced solution to the existing shortfall.”
Edwards responded to the letter with a statement saying that while none of the speaker’s proposals would solve the fiscal problems, he viewed them as a positive development in the ongoing discussions.
“I remain confident that we can come to an agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff that will include responsible reforms that will allow us to fund the type of government the people of Louisiana deserve in the most efficient way possible,” Edwards said.
The proposal to change the calculation of the state’s expenditure limit would require a constitutional amendment and statute, according to a statement that the speaker released with his letter to the governor.
The Legislature would pass a law to establish a growth factor for the level of state spending. The growth factor would be determined based on several factors, including the three-year average growth rate of the state’s population, the Southern U.S. consumer price index, the state’s total revenue growth rate and Louisiana’s personal income growth rate.
The average growth rate would be applied to the prior year’s total appropriation to set the new spending caps.
The proposed constitutional amendment would retain the Legislature’s ability to raise the cap with a two-thirds vote. Any reductions in the spending cap would also require a two-thirds vote.
The speaker recommended a work requirement of 20 hours per week averaged monthly for Medicaid recipients. The requirement could be fulfilled through volunteering or participating in work programs, he said in the statement.
Exemptions from the work requirement would include individuals under the age of 19 or over the age of 64, parents or caretakers responsible for a child under the age of 1 or with a serious medical condition and pregnant women. Those deemed physically or mentally medically unfit for employment, receiving unemployment compensation or participating in a drug addiction or alcoholic treatment and rehabilitation program would also be exempt.
Barras also recommended Medicaid co-pays for emergency room visits in non-emergency cases and for non-preferred drugs — brand name drugs that are not included on Medicaid’s list of preferred prescription drugs.
Additionally, the speaker suggested placing increasing priority on the Louisiana Health Insurance Premium Payments Program, which pays the employee portion of employer-based health insurance to recipients who are eligible for Medicaid or have family members eligible, as an effort to increase participation in the program.
Medicaid recipients with incomes above 150 percent of the Federal Poverty Level are now charged premiums. The speaker’s plan would expand that requirement to those with incomes above 100 percent of the poverty level, an action that would require a waiver from the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Barras also told the governor that the Republicans want to improve and expand a website that provides spending data — the Louisiana Transparency and Accountability portal, nicknamed LaTrac. The site was ranked seventh among the 50 states in providing online access to spending data, according to a report in 2016 by a non-profit group, the United States Public Interest Research Group.
In his statement, Barras said these proposals are a few of the proposals being considered by Republicans, and bills will be drafted and filed for these reform efforts. Additional budget and spending reform measures are being considered by a number of authors.
Aides to the governor said on Monday that they expect Barras to also identify by Friday some revenue-raising measures that they might be willing to consider.