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Reshuffling Existing Dollars

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The Senate Finance Committee votes today on how they want to change the state budget. Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne has advised them to “Start over, and simply undo the House amendments in their entirety.”

Dardenne is urging the upper chamber’s money committee to revert to Governor John Bel Edwards’ original plan, and he summed up how the House changed  the governor’s recommendations.

“What the House did was reclassify approximately $180-million for the express purpose of funding TOPS,” Dardenne said late last week.

“What’s in the preamble, you’re going to take out?” Shreveport Senator Greg Tarver asked.

“Yes, sir,” Dardenne replied, adding that the preamble’s sweep of fees and statutory dedications is problematic.

“It’s unworkable, unconstitutional, ill-advised, and certainly needs to be eliminated,” the Commissioner stated.

“When you enact a fee, it has to be for a particular purpose and nothing else; otherwise, it’s a tax. But the House has said, ‘We’re going to siphon off 3.3% of those fees that have been enacted.’ This is adding 3.3% in additional cuts to the fortunate or unfortunate agencies, who are going to have to contribute to TOPS.”

Dardenne went on to explain why he believes the fees sweep is unconstitutional.

“You can’t do that because you’re violating the distinction between a fee and a tax. And, by the way, you also can’t fo that during this regular session, because you can’t consider tax measures.”

But that’s only part of the problem with the House changes in order to fund TOPS, Dardenne asserts.

“That’s a hundred million of the 180-so that was found. The other $80-million comes from the Department of Health and Hospitals,” the Commissioner explained. “Taking $80-million from DHH has a devastating effect on our public-private partnerships – basically sending a message to them that we don’t want them to exist any longer.”

Franklin Senator Bret Allain wanted to be sure he understood what the administration is asking the Senate to do.

“You’re proposing to bring the shortfall on TOPS back to 183 million from what the House did, correct?” Allain inquired.

“That’s correct,” Dardenne replied. He acknowledged the senators find themselves between a rock and a hard place with TOPS, but reminds them they have no good options.

“There’s no more money. This is just reshuffling the existing dollars.”

The end of the session is drawing near, while legislative consensus on the best way to apportion the state’s limited dollars seems very far off.