Local lawmakers say budget required tough decisions

Though local legislators say they had to make some tough decisions in order to balance the state’s 2015-16 budget, the Legislature was able to protect priorities including higher education, health care and infrastructure during the legislative session, they said.
The 2015 Regular Legislative session ended Thursday in Baton Rouge.
State Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, said legislators finally put together a budget and closed the projected $1.6 billion shortfall while fully funding higher education and health care, which was Allain’s top priority.
“We had to make some very, very hard decisions,” Allain said.
Allain had seen higher education take cuts in previous years and didn’t believe it could sustain any more cuts, he said.
The Legislature raised the tax on cigarettes, which he believes was justified due to the burden that cigarette use puts on the state’s health care system, Allain said.
Legislators also took away some credits businesses were getting on inventory and utilities in order to help balance the state budget, Allain said. Though Allain didn’t want to take away tax credits, the Legislature had to give tax credits “a 25 percent haircut” to be able to fund higher education and health care, and balance the budget.
State Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, said the session was “a mixed bag.”
Jones was able to a get cost-of-living increase for all retired teachers, state police officers and state workers in “the final minute,” which they had earned but Gov. Bobby Jindal threatened to veto, Jones said.
State Rep. Joe Harrison, R-Gray, said of the 2015 session, “The best thing is knowing that the House and the Senate worked together to get something out. The worst thing is what we got out.”
Even with the steep budget cuts, local legislators did a good job minimizing the impact of the cuts to St. Mary Parish, Jones said.
St. Mary Parish’s legislative delegation did a great job making sure the area got funding needed for infrastructure, elementary and secondary education, and higher education, Jones said.
The state budget includes $650 million in new taxes, while legislators cut the budget by roughly $700 million, Jones said. Jones didn’t vote for most of the new taxes, he said.
Legislators cut the projected $25 billion down to about $24.4 billion, Jones said.
The last minute workings of the session were “more challenging than ever” in his time in the Legislature, Jones said.
“At the end of the day, we pulled it together, and you’ll see no substantial cuts in higher ed,” Allain said.
Institutions such as Nicholls State, Fletcher Technical Community College and Young Memorial are essential to the region for people to acquire the education and skills they need to be productive, Allain said.
Allain said it’s also important for the state to fund health care, especially for the disabled who depend on that funding.
“Pulling the budget together, I was willing to do some things that I wouldn’t otherwise be willing to do because of the tremendous cuts they were looking at in both health care and higher ed,” Allain said.
Though there were some “winners and losers” in the budget negotiations, according to Jindal, the Legislature balanced the budget in a way that was “revenue neutral,” Allain said.
Jones voted against the Student Assessment for Valuable Education Credit Program, Senate Bill 284, which he called a “counterfeiting fantasy” where Jindal created a “phony tax credit” for college students to pay for their tuitions at universities, he said. Universities are non-profit and can therefore not give tax credits anyway, he said.
According to the text of the bill, it establishes the SAVE tax credit program to grant a transferable tax credit for each student enrolling at a public institution of higher education, to provide for the determination of and limitation on the amount of credit granted and transferred, to require the transfer of the credit to the Board of Regents and to provide for distribution of funds under the Board of Regent’s formula for the equitable distribution of funds to public institutions of higher education.
Jones believes Jindal promoted the act because of his presidential aspirations, he said. Jones called the SAVE Act “worse than a Ponzi scheme.” It creates a tax liability for students, Jones said.
Harrison also voted against the SAVE Act and it was only passed for Jindal to be able to say he had a “no tax plan.”
Harrison thinks the SAVE Act may have created a worse problem than what some legislators thought they were fixing, he said. Accountants think the bill doesn’t follow sound accounting, Harrison said.
Allain, Jones and Harrison are scheduled to speak Wednesday at the St. Mary Chamber of Commerce’s “2015 Louisiana Legislative Session End Report” at the Petroleum Club of Morgan City. The event begins at 11:30 a.m. with a networking social followed by lunch at noon.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review staff. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com.