The state House is scheduled to begin debate of House Bill 1, the proposed $45.7-billion state budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1st. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerome Zeringue says it may not be everything Governor Edwards asked for, but the spending plan is a good one…:
“A very fiscally sound budget that reduces debt, provides for critical infrastructure and allows The Body to stay under the expenditure limit.”
The governor wanted teacher pay raises of $2000 to $3000 a year. Zeringue says the raises in HB 1 are less than that, because they chose instead to put more surplus dollars into lowering the state’s teacher retirement system debt; the so-called Unfunded Accrued Liability (UAL). He says this will enable school districts to give their own raises…:
“That will free up money for the locals that they can use to provide funding for teachers and for their institutions.”
Early childhood education will also have less dedicated funding than the governor hoped for. Zeringue says federal money for these programs is falling off and the state cannot afford to sustain funding at that level; not with another fiscal cliff coming in 2025…:
“I’d love to able to provide continued funding that was afforded through the federal government to continue…but the state can’t continue every federal subsidy, or every additional grant or proposal, and continue that into the future; as well-intended as they are.”
House floor debate of the budget bill, plus dozens of proposed member amendments should begin today at the Capitol.
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