03 June, 2017
"I'm not willing to force my colleagues to waste their time on voting on an issue when it will not pass", Carter said in a post on his Facebook page. "However, when I ran for re-election in 2015, to a person my constituents in District 68 told me we must find a solution to the transportation problems that plague our city and region", Carter said, defending his position.
Fischer says the Senate plans to produce its own measure, not attempt to amend the House plan. House leaders said they're protecting against revenues coming up short. They reversed some cuts proposed by Edwards and made reductions elsewhere.
"We don't have a budget and we don't have any direction to go, so it wouldn't surprise me at all", Erdey said earlier in the week. He said there was still time to address the state's budget crisis. Sharon Hewitt, a Slidell Republican.
"I know we don't have the votes".
Health spending would fall below the level Edwards sought but above the House proposal.
The cuts anxious Democratic Sen.
Source WAFB
Source WAFB
Payments to the private operators of the state's safety-net hospitals and services for the poor and uninsured also would drop next year, thought senators added money to shield rural hospitals from cuts.
The Senate hasn't yet drafted its version of the budget, so it's unclear if a deal can be struck.
Edwards' statement pointed to published quotes from state Rep. Lance Harris, head of the House Republican delegation, noting the Legislature's intent to bring a workable long-term plan to the session. Senate President John Alario says their plan also fully funds the TOPS scholarship program. They said they didn't realize that imposing the cap starting in July 2015 would cause some of those who installed the panels in the first half of 2015 to be denied credits when the state finally allowed them to apply for them in 2016. "But it does so in way that won't overly burden citizens of the state".
Gov. John Bel Edwards is calling a special legislative session to start next week, a precaution for the possibility he won't reach agreement with lawmakers on Louisiana's budget.
Steve Carter announced that he won't pursue the tax bill in the remaining days of the legislative session that ends June 8, saying he couldn't gather the 70 votes needed in the House for the effort to raise hundreds of millions annually for road and bridge work.
