The legislative session wraps up this evening and with two months of work in the books, a clear picture is forming already about which issues won out, and which issues failed to cross the finish line.
Political analyst Bernie Pinsonat says between a funding increase and a pay raise, K-12 education and teachers unions a whole were clear winners this year, along with those who backed them.
“The teachers got what they wanted, the school boards get an additional 39 million dollars which, by the way, a lot of Republicans opposed. In effect the Governor also won on that one.”
K-12 education secured a total of 140 million in additional funding this year between the raises and funding increases.
Labor issues once again found little support despite yet another year of support from Governor Edwards, who made working class wage issues a core part of his election pitch four years ago.
“The Governor wanted minimum wage, the governor wanted equal pay (for women), and he’s been trying to get that for the last three years. In the year of his term, his fourth year, he failed again.”
Edwards pushed for a minimum wage increase from the current 7.25 an hour to nine dollars an hour.
While most issues have been settled, it remains up in the air as to whether or not Governor Edwards will sign a 700-million-dollar road project bill that uses BP oil spill settlement money. Pinsonat says politically it’s a double-edged sword.
“Do I do that and get some money and start some of these projects, or do I hold this back which may hurt our ability to pass an additional gasoline tax on drivers in Louisiana.”
The state has a 14 billion dollar backlog of road projects.
