The longest day of the legislative year began with the Revenue Estimating Conference dashing some House members hopes for more money.
“Is there any reason to change that forecast?” REC chairman Jim Richardson asked.
“Based on what we’ve heard, it seems to me that there is no reason to change the forecast,” Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne responded.
“Mr. Speaker?”
“Mr. Chairman, I would agree,” House Speaker Taylor Barras responded, with a sigh.
The House then started work on the state budget bills, beginning with HB 105, giving the Attorney General his own separate budget. More than 3 hours of debate ensued, with House members grilling A.G. Jeff Landry for details on his budget. His answers were not always responsive.
“You’re asking for this authority and all of this freedom, and you don’t know all of the answers dealing with your budget,” Rep. Ted James stated, at one point.
Ultimately, it seemed this statement from Landry swayed lawmakers the most.
“What this bill does – in my opinion – is basically bring back to the legislature power that the governors have usurped from this body.”
Despite several questions about the constitutionality of the move – and the Governor’s threatened veto of the separate budget, House members approved HB 105.
Moving on to HB 1, the main budget bill, an early amendment restored funding for the Inspector General’s office, and approvals for budget schedules moved smoothly, till it came to the Department of Health and Hospitals. DHH Secretary Rebekah Gee was called to talk about the way Appropriations had reallocated funds to the public-private partner hospitals. Originally, the bill called for full funding of just five of the nine, with hopes more revenue would be generated in a second special session.
“What I’m hearing now, having spoken to all the partners, is that with this current budget reallocated across the nine, none of them are viable,” Gee told the House.
Rep. Lance Harris asked Gee and Undersecretary Jeff Reynolds how much profit the private partners were making. They didn’t know.
“You did not review financials of the partners? Is this how you do all your contracts?” Harris demanded.
“No sir,” Reynolds replied. “That contract is not with the Department of Health and Hospitals. It’s with LSU.”
“And the contract was negotiated by the Jindal administration,” Gee added.
An amendment ended up pulling money back from TOPS, giving full funding to all nine of the public-private partner hospitals.
And the longest day is spilling over into day two, as the House adjourned without completing action on HB 1. They’ll take up the remainder of it – and the rest of the budget bills – today.