Surplus spending lawmakers’ main focus

Tri-parish area state legislators are expressing mixed feelings about the special session of the state Legislature beginning March 9.

The session was called to allow legislators to deal with the influx of relief money coming into the state because of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and to address a few other fiscal issues.

“Louisiana’s economy has been strong post-Katrina,” said state Sen. Butch Gautreaux of Morgan City. “There’s a lot of federal dollars in the state economy.”

The Louisiana constitution permits legislation on fiscal matters to occur only in odd-numbered years. Because 2008 is an even-numbered year, a special session will be convened to deal with the new money.

State Sen. Reggie Dupre of Houma said the post-Katrina and Rita funds available to legislators at the session are not, technically, budget surplus, but are considered excess revenue. Budget surplus funds would have greater restrictions placed on their appropriation.

At the session, Dupre said he hopes to vote on reducing the tax on state debt and the state franchise tax, as well as lowering the utilities tax by one cent.

“During (Gov.) Blanco’s administration, (the state legislature) already passed a phase-out of some of these taxes,” he said. “We may discuss accelerating these phase-outs.”

Gautreaux said he has “grave concerns” about spending the excess revenue.

“I’ve seen the ups and downside of the economy,” he said. “Sometimes it’s harder to deal with the ups than when things go down.”

“It’s not smart to do the tax cuts,” he said. “We have money in the bank, but how long will we have these surpluses? It may be smarter to just pay down the state debt and improve our bond rating. I’m uncomfortable with this session.”

Legislators were not given many details about the special session, said state Rep. Damon Baldone of Houma, but, he noted, “I’m hoping we can steer money to coastal restoration and highways. We will try to get money for Louisiana Highway 1 (improvements).”