(Baton Rouge, LA) As our first special session of 2018 comes to an end, the LAGOP wants to take a moment to thank our Republican House and Senate leadership.
“We stand behind our Republican legislators. As we have repeatedly seen over the past several years, the one thing we can fully agree on with our Governor is that there has indeed been a lack of leadership. However, this spectacular failure can ONLY be attributed to the Governor,” said LAGOP Chairman Louis Gurvich. “It is apparent that the Governor was not even able to control the Democratic delegation in this session,” Gurvich went on to say, commenting on the divide between the Governor and the legislative Black Caucus.
“The Governor called a special session based on the false premise that Louisiana was facing a $1 billion dollar plus deficit. The truth is that we will not know what the projected deficit will be until the Revenue Estimating Conference meets in the next few months,” said Senator Conrad Appel (SD-9, Metairie)
Lance Harris, the Louisiana Republican legislative delegation chairman, (HD-25, Alexandria) stated that the Governor “should quit blaming everyone from Jindal to Peter Pan and man up! It’s a sad day when the leader of the Democratic Party of Louisiana can’t produce, much less even communicate. We (Republicans) wanted a fair result, but the goalposts were moved every day,” commented Harris.
"As a result of the Governor’s leadership failure, Louisianans will not receive the benefit of the widely supported Louisiana Checkbook (a reform that would require detailed summaries of all state expenditures, which passed the House 104 to 0), or much needed Medicaid reforms, and students and parents will not know what amount of aid, if any, will be available to them under the TOPS program this Fall," stated Gurvich.
The regular session starts on March 12th. By law, the regular session in even years cannot consider revenue raising bills, and another special session is expected in the Summer.
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Originally published 3/5/18
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