BATON ROUGE – Hardline opponents to Gov. John Bel Edwards’ efforts to address the catastrophic budget disaster have still offered no discernible plan of their own. With five days remaining in the special session and dwindling options available to confront the historic fiscal crisis, no credible alternative to the governor’s plan has been put forward. Stubborn partisanship and blind loyalty to corporate special interests by certain elements of the legislature is threatening to derail what limited progress has been made.
With setbacks last night which nearly doubled the amount of the anticipated budgetary shortfall, it became that much more imperative for state lawmakers to rise to the occasion and step up to do their jobs. Called upon today by Gov. Edwards to “lead, follow, or get out of the way,” a stubborn cadre of holdouts in the legislature continues to resist any pathway forward. Those opposed to the governor’s plan have utterly failed to provide alternatives of their own, or to show genuine leadership in any respect.
“We are staring down a legitimately catastrophic financial shortfall, and time is ticking away,” said Stephen Handwerk, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party, “If lawmakers have objections to what the governor has proposed, it’s past time they stepped forward and offered a plan. Failing that, they have a duty to put aside their stubborn opposition and do the job they were elected to do— work with the governor to move our state forward.”
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