State budget likely to take different trajectory

By Jeremy Alford
LaPolitics.com
The House Appropriations Committee may not advance the main budget bill this session on a recognizable schedule.
That’s because Appropriations Chairman Jim Fannin, R-Jonesboro, said he may wait until he gets a clear picture on what revenue bills the Senate is willing to send back to the House, which may come late in the session. Lawmakers must end the session by June 11.
“We really should wait until we can get a good handle on what kind of money we’ll be working with,” said Fannin.
The entire framework of the session is different this year due to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s “revenue neutral” rule. The governor will not endorse any net increase in taxes, but he is willing to sign a tax increase if it is offset by a decrease elsewhere in the budget by the same amount. That’s a tall order with a $1.6 billion budget shortfall.
It has also resulted in a session with several moving pieces; while the budget is traditionally cobbled together each year with a small handful of bills, this spring lawmakers may be forced to use dozens of bills to balance the budget. Bills to increases taxes, reduce incentives and repeal exemptions are just a few examples.
Fannin said he needed assurances that the revenues targeted in bills moving through the House and Senate will ultimately be passed before he advances the budget that bears his name as the lead author.
“Good assurances are hard to come by lately,” he said with a laugh.
The bottom line may very well be a budget bill, found in HB 1, moving later than usual.
Next governor may have first appointment
The Senate Transportation Committee passed legislation last week to create a new state office dedicated to multimodal commerce and for an appointed commissioner to manage operations.
If ultimately approved, the next governor will be tasked with selecting the new figurehead after taking their oath of office in January 2016.
The multimodal office, which would operate within the framework of the Department of Transportation and Development, would focus solely on commercial trucking, ports, waterways, aviation, freight and passenger rail.
Sen. Norby Chabert said his SB 161 would allow DOTD to concentrate its efforts on roads and highways during a time that its construction and maintenance backlog has reached $12 billion.

Business reacts cooly to Jindal speech
While Gov. Bobby Jindal’s session-opening speech last week offered several themes for a national audience wondering if he’ll run for president, and more somber moments when discussing his mother’s recent surgery, the business lobby walked away from the 21-minute address with equal parts doubt and concern.
That’s due to his repeated use of “corporate welfare” in his speech.
“All of a sudden the governor wants to balance the budget on the back of business and he’s calling it corporate welfare,” said Dawn R. Starns, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business. “That is a change in tone. Was it corporate welfare when he was investing in these mega-projects and investing money in companies to get them to move here?”

Economic development fees could go up
Application, administration and processing fees for some of Louisiana’s most popular economic development programs could soon increase to help the state pay the costs of overseeing them.
The House Commerce Committee approved HB 773 last week to create the new fee schedule.
“The fees in this area of the law have not been increased in many, many years,” said Speaker Pro Tem Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, the bill’s author.
The impacted fee changes would be applied to the Quality Jobs Program; Enterprise Zone Program; restoration tax abatement; research and development; and other programs.
LMOGA planning to spend on fall elections
The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association has always been active in legislative elections. But this fall will be different for its MC-PAC, with big checks coming in and big asks underway.
“We’ll spend more money this time than ever before,” said LMOGA president Chris John.
The former congressman said term limits are one reason; the anti-energy votes taken by some lawmakers in recent years is another.
While the processing tax and a handful of other perennial bills were always enough to gauge the loyalty of lawmakers to industry, John said there are now many more policy measures to track, like proposals on legacy matters and litigation.
Additionally, the recent suits against oil companies by parish governments have led to LMOGA getting involved in local politics.
“We’ve never played on that level before,” said John.
A very early look at redistricting
About a month ago the U.S. Census released its latest parish population statistics and John Couvillon, CEO of JMC Analytics and Polling, said there are redistricting implications to be gleaned from the data.
At the present rate of growth, he said, the upcoming round of reapportionment could see Orleans and St Bernard parishes recapture two of the four state House seats that were eliminated in the region in 2011.
Moreover, Couvillon is predicting that additional robust population growth points to one or two new House seats somewhere along the I-10/I-12 corridor, which includes Ascension, Lafayette, Livingston, St. Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes.
Those gains, however, would have to be offset somewhere else, he added. It looks like Caddo and Jefferson parishes could lose at least one seat each if the trend holds. Further offsetting would also be seen in the state’s more rural parishes.
We’ll all know for sure following the 2020 count. For now, it’s all a guessing game.
They Said It
“It doesn’t take long if you don’t have money.”
—Senate Transportation Chairman Robert Adley, R-Benton, commenting on how quickly his committee meeting ended this week
For more Louisiana political news, visit www.LaPolitics.com or follow Jeremy Alford on Twitter @LaPoliticsNow.