LaFleur, Johnson decry ‘do-nothing’ special session

What has been called a “do-nothing” special session has Avoyelles’ two Democratic legislators upset by blatant party politics at the expense of taking care of the Legislature’s obligation to present a balanced budget at the end of the upcoming regular session.

“It was terrible,” Rep. Robert Johnson (D-Marksville) said. “I have never seen anything like it in my 10 years in the House. I never saw anyone work so hard to not get anything done as the House Republican leadership did in this special session. It really was shameful.”

State Sen. Eric LaFleur (D-Ville Platte) said the goal of many legislators “is not to succeed, never to fulfill their promise of reform.

“In this session,” he continued, “they chose to fail and blame the governor or anyone else they could find instead of themselves.”

The Legislature ended its special session March 5, two days before its scheduled adjournment, after two weeks of often bitter debate and with virtually nothing but bad feelings and a $1 million bill to the state taxpayers to pay for the session.

The purpose of the special session was to erase a $994 million deficit by (a) raising revenue, (b) approving budget cuts and/or (c) a combination of the two.

None of those things happened.

“The deficit is still there,” Johnson said.

“SHOULD BE 'HONTE'"
“We should be ‘honte’ at what the legislation did over the last 17 days,” LaFleur said. “Honte” is a French word meaning “shame or disgrace.”

“It’s classic Washington, D.C. style politics,” LaFleur said. “The approach that is most hated by Americans, including myself.”

Johnson also saw the similarity between Congress and the Legislature.

“The main difference between Washington and here is that Congress doesn’t have to pass a balanced budget and we do,” he added with a laugh.

If something significant is not done to raise revenues to cover all, most or at least some of that $1 billion deficit, the hole will have to be filled by budget cuts. That could result in some very unpleasant, distasteful and unpopular cuts in state services and programs. Those cuts would include the popular TOPS program to reward students going on to college and reductions in recent health care reforms.

The state will lose $1.5 billion in sales tax when a temporary 1-cent tax expires June 30, Johnson said. There were proposals to keep 1/4 to 1/2 of that tax on the rolls, but it was not adopted.

“If the Legislature had implemented every revenue-raising instrument proposed in this session, the people of Louisiana would still have seen an overall reduction in taxes,” Johnson said, noting that $1.5 billion was expiring and less than $1 billion would have been added.

“The temporary 1-cent sales tax was always meant to be temporary and it was supposed to be replaced with the adoption of one of the many revenue measures proposed by the tax reform Blue Ribbon Commission,” LaFleur noted. “Instead, the Legislature rejected every recommendation of that Blue Ribbon Committee.

RENEGED ON PROMIS

“They clearly reneged on their promise to the taxpayers to make the one-cent tax temporary and replace it with a long term and more equitable tax measure,” he added.

Johnson, who has shown little restraint in bashing the Republicans in past budget battles, continued with his brutally honest assessment of his GOP colleagues.

“It was obvious that the Republican leadership was running a campaign for governor while the rest of us were trying to balance the budget,” Johnson said. “There were even Republican legislators who said as much, stating that in meetings among Republicans they were told the proposals would be voted down because they want to make this governor look bad and will do everything they can to do that.”

The current battle plan to bridge the deficit could involve adjourning the regular session early and immediately going into a special session to adopt the revenue-raising legislation.

“The budget that is presented is one I cannot vote for -- and I don’t know many who can,” Johnson said.

A budget could be crafted and adopted based contingent on revenue being approved to implement that budget.

Johnson said there is $200-300 million more in state revenues due to changes in the federal income tax. That expected revenue has not been officially recognized by the Legislature. When it is, that will reduce the projected deficit.

Johnson indicated that money could be dedicated to funding the TOPS program.

He said the Legislature has adopted “contingency” budgets during the previous administration, but that practice can result in drastic mid-year cuts when the projected revenues to cover the budget don’t materialize.

“This governor has said repeatedly that he does not want a budget balanced with gimmicks,” Johnson said. “He wants a true balanced budget.”