Lawmakers grill officials on contract scrutiny as session continues

Local lawmakers sitting on a key state House committee spent the first part of this week hearing details of bills that will increase oversight of state contracts, while weighing proposals for tax increases that in some cases may appear inevitable.

Now in their second week of an Extraordinary Session called by Gov. John Bel Edwards, legislators are weighing the potential of unprecedented tax increases to fill a $940 million hole in Louisiana’s budget, while laying the groundwork for plugging an estimated $2 billion gap for 2017-18. The current session is constitutionally restricted to only dealing with the 2016 budget shortfalls, although lawmakers have said that processes it develops can result in further savings that extend into the next year.

Monday’s Appropriations Committee meeting saw tension between some House members and Edwards’ Commissioner of Administration, Jay Dardenne. At issue was a proposed resolution authored by Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria. It would direct Dardenne and other officials to review “certain state contracts” to identify any that can be terminated, and to have those results reported to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget by March 1.

The deadline shortens the amount of time Dardenne was given in an executive order signed by Edwards, which sets it at March 14. Questions raised during the committee meeting spotlighted the enormity of the task faced by state officials at all levels, and the labor-intensive nature of the search for budgetary solutions.

Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Houma, posed tough questions to Dardenne during discussion on the Harris bill, HCR-2.

“You are saying things are already in process,” Amedee said, referring to the audit of contracts covered by the executive order. “By saying it is already in process

doesn’t assure me at all. I don’t know how many contracts may be before us. Extraordinary times call for bold measures.”

Dardenne suggested that moving up the deadline would be easier said than done.

“Whatever you tell us to do we are going to do but I want you to understand the reality of what you are proposing,” he said.

What became clear during Monday’s session of Appropriations is that many state contracts have no oversight at all, other than from the executive offices that grant them, in cases where requests for proposal are not required.

The bill passed with an amendment that comports to the March 14 deadline. The current session ends in March. However, Dardenne left open the option that as his office continues reviewing contracts, the information gleaned will be shared with lawmakers.

The amendment was a defeat of sorts for Amedee and other legislators who have pledged a greater focus on accountability during the budget crisis.

But one member of the local delegation, Rep. Dee Richard, No Party-Thibodaux, saw movement on his bill requiring a 15 percent reduction in the total dollar amount for professional, personal and consulting service contracts under the jurisdiction of the office of state procurement. It passed the appropriations committee with no objections or amendments. Richard has consistently sought the measure, which has passed the House in the past but died in the Senate.

“If we can’t find some spending cuts in these contracts this year, shame on us,” Richard said Saturday. “The more cuts we can find right now the less we will have to go to the people.”

Richard blamed the body he serves for the shape the state is in, noting that it is the Legislature that had approved budgets that put the state in the whole.

Last week, lawmakers heard explanations from various state agency heads of their expenditures, and of how deeply their agencies had already been cut.

Rep. Jerome Zeringue, R-Houma, also a member of the Appropriations Committee, described the current task as an attempt to address budget cuts Edwards has proposed, “but also ensuring that we can work with (universities and health care agencies) to keep universities open and hospitals open.”

Eye-opening was how he described the experiences of learning details of just how badly some entities had been cut in the past, during the administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal.

“I knew things were bad but you don’t realize it until you get the numbers and hear the budgets and see the limited options we have. If we impose cuts we have already proposed, we are still looking at another $500 million we are going to have to find just to get to June 30.”

Closure of some health care services and universities, Zeringue acknowledged, will be almost inevitable, along with the likelihood of additional taxes.

New taxes on cigarettes and beer, which in particular has gone untouched for decades, are likely, he said.

Zeringue and other local legislators appeared to agree that all potentials for cuts should be examined before revenue increases through taxes are acted upon.

Additionally, local lawmakers said permanent safeguards must be engineered into the process overall. Some of those changes, however, will likely have to wait for the March regular session.

The committee assignments of State Rep. Tanner Magee, R-Houma, do not include appropriations or ways and means, which are most involved currently with legislative proposals.

However, he says he is closely watching how the committee actions play out, in preparation for general floor action, which will take place later this week.

The scrutiny proposed overall, Magee said, marks an important change of direction for state government.

“The desire is there,” he said. “Nobody wants to go back where to where we were. Can we do some of that in the regular session? When and where and how we address these needs is all that is being talked about. We have an archaic system that doesn’t provide revenue and is bad for business.”

State Rep. Dee Richard, No Party-Thibodaux, is seeking a 15 percent reduction in the total dollar amount for professional, personal and consulting service contracts.

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