Governor Landry vetoed 78 projects from three budget bills, slashing more than $12 million from the state’s budget in the process. Melinda Deslatte with the Public Affairs Research Council says her organization’s concerns about these projects are not about the projects themselves, but rather how they were added to the budget.
“A lot of these projects just get added in, in a bulk set of amendments; they don’t seem to go through any kind of public vetting process or discussion of the needs of the state on a statewide holistic basis,” Deslatte said.
Deslatte points out that unlike last year, when Landry’s vetoes were aimed at his fellow Republicans, namely those who voted against his signature insurance reform measure, this year’s vetoes were aimed at Democratic districts.
“There are a lot of vetoes of projects, particularly in New Orleans, that seem to have taken quite the brunt of a lot of these vetoes, but also in the Baton Rouge area as well,” Deslatte noted.
Unlike other vetoes that Landry issued, which were accompanied by letters explaining his reasons for those vetoes, Landry’s letter only listed the line items he was vetoing and offered no explanation. Deslatte says that leaves people to speculate that Landry only did this for political retaliation; and if that’s indeed the case, Landry would by no means be the first governor to take this approach.
“A lot of times, varying from governor to governor, there are always claims that this is political retaliation for specific votes that individual legislators took, or retaliation because of a legislator’s political party affiliation,” Deslatte explained.
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