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No Budget, No Peace

As the final day of the session begins, there is no budget agreement.

“Members, I would move that we reject the Senate amendments and send House Bill One to conference,” House Appropriations chair Jim Fannin urged yesterday, adding, “We’ve got some work we need to do on it.”

With 93 yeas and zero nays, the House did just that. Now three representatives and three senators will endeavor to privately resolve what 144 lawmakers have been publicly arguing over for the past two months. Yet what if they can’t fix the $1.6-billion deficit before today’s clock runs out?

“At 6 p.m. on the 11th, it’s over,” Senate Secretary Glenn Koepp says. “Everything ends, and we’ve either done it, or we haven’t done it.”

In other words, no extra innings or overtime. And if either chamber refuses to accept the conference committee report, Koepp says the session could end without a budget.

“A budget for next year starts July first, so if we don’t have a budget, then state government basically would shut down,” Koepp explains.

In that case, legislators would have to call themselves into special session A.S.A.P.

“They can’t do it immediately,” Koepp says. “I believe it’s at least five days.”

And that presents a whole different set of hurdles. The state constitution says, “”A bill appropriating money in an extraordinary session convened after final adjournment of the regular session in the last year of the term of office of a governor shall require the favorable vote of three-fourths of the elected members of each house.” A budget done in a special session will need 79 House members and 30 Senators to pass.

With the House still exhibiting strong resistance to the SAVE scheme, the Senate could kill that phantom college fee in order to just pass a budget and go home. Revenue Secretary Tim Barfield says that choice would guarantee Governor Jindal’s veto of the budget.

“It’s very firm. It hasn’t changed. It’s never changed,” Barfield says, unequivocally. “There will be no tax increase from the administration standpoint.”

That would lead to a veto override session to even have a budget. That couldn’t start till July 21st. But the House is ready for it.

“This is the resolution that 94 members signed,” Rep. Cameron Henry announced on the House floor Tuesday. “It expresses the intent of the Legislature to meet in a veto session if the Governor vetoes any appropriations or funding.”

HR 183 passed, without objection.