Panel seeks fewer cuts

• By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jun 4, 2009 - Page: 1A

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A Senate committee on Wednesday reduced proposed budget cuts to health care and higher education.

To generate dollars, the Senate Finance Committee recommended dipping into the state’s “rainy day” fund and delaying an income tax break.

Lawmakers also found money for senior citizen programs, downtown development, public libraries, museums and food banks.

“We felt like it was the general sense of this committee, obviously, to try to do something to help higher education and health care,” said state Sen. Mike Michot, R-Lafayette and the panel’s chairman.

House Bill 1 — the $28 billion proposed operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year — now moves to the full Senate.

The state is facing a drop in revenue of more than $1.3 billion in the fiscal year that starts July 1. The decline is largely due to slumping tax collections.

Gov. Bobby Jindal initially proposed a budget with deep cuts for health care and higher education.

Lawmakers scrambled to find ways to soften the cuts, especially for the state’s public colleges and universities.

The House suggested tapping into a proposed tax amnesty program and an insurance fund.

Earlier Wednesday, the Senate advanced its solution to higher education’s budget problems.

Senate Bill 335 would freeze the amount of federal excess itemized deductions that state income tax filers can deduct at current levels through 2011. Instead of being able to claim 100 percent, tax filers would only be able to claim 65 percent.

The change would result in $118 million in savings for state government, money that the Senate wants to use for higher education.

The bill appears to face a daunting fight in the House, where a number of lawmakers are denouncing it.