Governor expresses surprise a capital outlay cuts

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Neil Abramson’s 378 amendments to the state capital outlay budget, eliminating hundreds of state and local government projects on top of the nearly $1 billion in projects the executive branch already excluded, came as a surprise to Gov. John Bel Edwards.
And the governor is not amused.
Edwards told the Manship School News Service Tuesday the administration had met with Rep. Abramson, D-New Orleans, about which programs would be removed from the previous year’s bloated capital outlay budget but was unaware of the additional $330 million in projects the chairman cut via the amendments for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
“We never saw those amendments before they were offered,” Edwards said of changes to House Bill 2 that passed out of Abramson’s committee Monday. “In fact, we’re still studying those amendments to see which projects got impacted and how.”
Edwards said communication between the two chambers about budgetary matters is not what he wants it to be, and it is difficult to imagine how Abramson would pursue so many amendments without conferring with the governor’s office.  
Abramson countered that he, Ways and Means vice chairman Jim Morris, R-Oil City, and committee members communicated directly with the governor’s staff, including Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, who, Abramson claimed, “testified during the Monday committee hearing on HB2 that we worked on this together.”
Dardenne spokesman Cody Wells said that while the commissioner was aware of the number of amendments to HB2, he did not have an opportunity to inform the governor due to the hectic nature of the week with the introduction of budget cuts in the House Appropriations Committee.    
Abramson said until the Senate can look into the outlay program it is hard to understand the magnitude of the problem and predicted once it investigates further its opinion will change.
Traditionally, past governors would use the capital outlay budget to pressure legislators to vote in favor of the governor’s preferred policies.  But with a special session nearing, Edwards will have legislation in House Bill 2 that will be unpopular with some House Republicans, and nothing to trade.
“Had I chosen to, we could have left those projects in and then I could (have) used those as bargaining chips to get legislators on board with my agenda, but it still wasn’t the right thing to do.”
Edwards broke precedent by substantially cutting down the number of capital outlay projects as a result of an ambitious $2 billion wish list for capital structures and other projects which, it became quickly apparent, the state could not afford.  
“As the governor, I get to decide which projects go to the bond commission for funding. I didn’t have to (cut projects out). But it sends a signal to our creditors and to the people of Louisiana if we continue to (come up with) a bloated outlay program that nobody believes is realistic.”