Gov. Jindal meets with La. legislative leaders, trying to break budget stalemate

La. Gov. Jindal intervenes in budget stalemate

BATON ROUGE, La. — Gov. Bobby Jindal tried Tuesday to help broker a compromise between House and Senate leaders who are locked in a stalemate over the state’s budget, and the governor said he doesn’t expect the deadlock to force a special session.

Returning to legislative haggling after weeks largely focused on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Jindal met with groups of legislative leaders throughout the day to discuss the budget disagreements.

The governor said he wasn’t choosing sides, but was encouraging lawmakers to continue their negotiations with each other directly to break the logjam. He called it a “healthy part of the process,” but he also said he expects the Legislature to complete its budget work before the regular session ends June 21.

“We are absolutely going to get a budget done this session. We are not going to need a special session,” Jindal said at the start of a meeting with his chief of staff, his executive counsel and three House leaders. He added, “There is still plenty of time in this process.”

The governor acknowledged the issues wouldn’t be solved by Tuesday’s meetings.

The House has stalled all work on rebalancing this year’s budget and on charting a spending course for next year because of a dispute with the Senate over the use of the state’s “rainy day” fund.

House Speaker Jim Tucker and Senate President Joel Chaisson have agreed to attend a meeting of the state’s income forecasting panel Tuesday and air their disagreements publicly. The dispute on when to repay the rainy day fund money is expected to be part of the Revenue Estimating Conference discussion.

Both sides agree to use rainy day money to help plug this year’s $319 million deficit, but they disagree on when they are required to repay it. House leaders say a constitutional provision requires the money must be repaid in the upcoming fiscal year, and Senate leaders say a more recent statutory change doesn’t require the money to be repaid for years.

Repaying the money immediately in the new budget year that begins July 1, as the House wants, would require deeper cuts in next year’s budget than the Senate’s rainy day repayment plan.

Jindal said he had concerns about trying to delay the payback of the rainy day money as Chaisson proposes, and the governor also said such a delay could face a court challenge.

Online:

House Bills 1 and 1358 can be found at www.legis.state.la.us