Political Horizons for June 7, 2009

• By MARK BALLARD
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jun 7, 2009 - Page: 7B

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Expect a fractious debate over the budget this coming week. But also note that, despite all the name-calling as legislators go hooting down one trail or another, very little will be said about the future of Louisiana.

To balance spending with a $1.3 billion drop in state revenues, Gov. Bobby Jindal and his supporters in the Louisiana Legislature are pushing a $9 billion state general fund, which is filled with cuts to government services, particularly for health care and higher education. They have blocked every effort to increase revenues.

What won’t be said straight-out is that very little long-term planning has taken place to deal with a grim financial future. In addition to this year’s spending reduction, expect possibly another $700 million in cuts for the fiscal year in 2011, a $1.9 billion shortfall in 2012 and another $1.8 billion for fiscal year 2013, which begins July 1 in just three years.

Jindal said the state needs to hold back budget-balancing tools, such as the so-called “rainy day” fund, to use next year.

But that hardly amounts to a long-term strategy, says state Sen. Lydia Jackson, echoing the opinions of some of her colleagues.

Instead of articulating how the governor sees state government in three years, all Jindal has done is outline what he won’t accept, she said. Into that void, the Shreveport Democrat tried to fashion a plan to reduce at least some of the deep cuts Jindal recommends  on higher education.

“It’s hard for me tell what his priorities are,” said Jackson, who is a Shreveport banker in real life. “I don’t see that the governor has, to date, put his arms around the whole of state government and said, ‘This is what I want it to do, and this is how I want to execute these services.’”

State Sen. Robert Adley of Benton, the senior Republican in the upper chamber, said lawmakers have been gathering on their own to try to come up with a three-year plan.

“I’ve participated in some of the conversations,” said Adley, a survivor from the Roemer years when $1.5 billion had to be trimmed from a then $4 billion state budget.

“Sooner or later, the governor is going to have to come up and work with us,” Adley said. “It can’t be just to cut everything across the board. That’s not going to solve our problems. We need to recognize that there are some strategic things we need.”

House Speaker Jim Tucker said the Louisiana House of Representatives forwarded its vision of the future in House Bill 1, state government’s spending plan. The state Senate rewrote vast swatches of that plan.

What’s left will be the subject of intense negotiation.

“The key point is that the House voted to reduce the size of government by voting to significantly reduce the number of state employees,” Tucker said.