Construction budget drama ends

Louisiana’s construction budgetary drama reached its denouement on Father’s Day as lawmakers left family celebrations to gather Sunday night at the Statehouse in a 94-6 concurrence of Senate amendments to the $1.4 billion in state cash lines of credit for local capital projects.
The money for the Priority 1 and Priority 2 projects comes from the Louisiana Bond Commission and cannot be used on the state’s operating programs, such as hospitals and TOPS.
The overall budget totals $4.4 billion. Other projects on lower priority levels will not receive a cash line of credit for the next year.
After the budget contained in House Bill 2 failed to pass in the regular legislative session following a controversial series of events that stalled it in the final hours, Rep. Neil Abramson, D-New Orleans, authored the new capital outlay bill, complete with the technical and legal corrections he claimed held it up on the first go-around.
HB2 consumed an inordinate amount of time in the legislative sessions and created bad blood between the House and Senate chambers. It now, however, will finally make it to the governor’s desk three days before the year’s second special ends must end.
Gov. John Bel Edwards has stated several times that he will not use his line-item veto authority to coerce legislators into voting for revenue raising measures. Traditionally, governors have threatened to remove local projects if the area’s legislators don’t fall into line on other bills.