Budget cut hinges on one-time cash

An arcane philosophical debate among conservative lawmakers will determine how deeply funding is slashed for public colleges and health care services in the upcoming budget year.

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives are squabbling over the use of one-time money for continuing programs. Eyes can glaze over at the topic. But hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake in next year’s spending plan.

The disagreement is expected to be the centerpiece of House debate Thursday on the $25 billion budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year that begins July 1.

Critics of the financing maneuver, largely conservative Republicans, say using too much of the piecemeal strategy creates a cycle of budget problems because one-time money is just as its name implies: it isn’t certain to reappear year after year even though Louisiana residents expect services to continue.

“You have to come to a reality sooner or later that maybe we can’t afford the government that we grew,” said Rep. Johnny Berthelot (R-Gonzales). “When you sit up here and see the millions and billions of dollars being spent, I think a lot of people here realize maybe we haven’t cut as much as we need to.”

Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles, last year successfully pushed a House rule that makes it tougher to use one-time money in the state’s annual operating budget. He blames the state’s continuing budget woes on a refusal to cut spending more severely to reflect a drop in tax income.

“If you want to quit digging the hole, you need to lay the shovel down,” Geymann said.

Supporters of the one-time money approach, including Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration, say the cuts required to avoid using the $340-plus million in one-time cash could damage critical services.

“Without this (one-time money), you’re going to get deep into the services of this state,” said Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro. “I don’t know that you truly understand what the ramifications of that will be.”

Dollars for higher education, public hospitals and health care services are most vulnerable as the House haggles.

Arguments over one-time spending nearly stalled budget bills in the House Appropriations Committee. Conservative Republicans who are Jindal allies agreed to move the measures out of committee – but they warned they may not be so agreeable on the House floor.

Rep. Tony Ligi (R-Kenner) said lawmakers are sending a message to the Jindal administration “about the need for less spending and smaller government.”

The debate puts Jindal in an uncomfortable position. The Republican governor has portrayed himself as a fiscal hawk, working to make government more efficient, pushing to privatize services and reaching a 20-year low in state employment levels.

But GOP lawmakers suggest Jindal hasn’t gone far enough, a position echoed by Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter.

In a recent email to supporters, Vitter said the state’s continued use of one-time dollars for ongoing expenses only serves to “kick the can down the road from making the tough, but necessary, budget decisions for our state.”

“That practice is too akin to Washington’s way of business, and Louisianians rightly acknowledge Washington doesn’t know the first thing about fiscal stewardship,” Vitter wrote.

Rep. John Schroder (R-Covington) said the administration has pledged for more than four years to wean the state off the use of one-time cash for ongoing programs. “But I don’t see us doing that,” he said.

Jindal’s top budget adviser, Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater, said the administration has reduced one-time money in the budget and tried to use it in strategic ways, such as helping agencies restructure, privatize services and become more efficient. He said the one-time dollars were plugged into critical services.

“You can’t take the chain saw and just cut across the table,” Rainwater said.

Jindal and his administration have a lot of persuading to do if they want to get House lawmakers to agree.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Melinda Deslatte covers the Louisiana Capitol for The Associated Press.