BATON ROUGE – Voters throughout the state are making their voices heard, refusing to let Louisiana Republicans off the hook for the $1.6 billion budget disaster they aided and abetted in creating.
- A retired education administrator wrote into the Advocate to point out that “[John] Alario, as Senate president, was the point man for ALL of Jindal’s budgets, including this year’s. During those years, he stood side by side with Jindal as he continued to dig the budgetary grave that has finally come to fruition this year.”
- The editorial board at the Daily Advertiser in Lafayette writes “Louisiana’s stability has suffered in recent years; the Legislature’s madcap effort to make the 2016 state budget float is not encouraging. Still, the governor wanders.”
- Columnist Stephanie Grace points up the dismal waste of time and money the GOP has put the legislature through, noting: “It’s an example of how much of the conversation over how to close the budget hole has hinged on definitions rather than dollars. If we’re witnessing some spectacularly creative accounting, we’re also watching an extraordinary game of semantics.”
- The Advocate’s editorial board points out: “Next year, more than $500 million in one-time money won’t appear, and many of this year’s “fixes” are short-term changes that do not improve the state’s financial position.”
Collectively, the people who are paying attention are painting a grim picture of the GOP’s failure. “This legislature has created this crisis. In each of the three years they have passed budgets, crippling mid-year budget cuts have been made because their budget didn’t balance. Now they are talking about just giving up?” said Stephen Handwerk, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party. “Voters are paying attention, and they will hold the GOP accountable for their failure this fall.”
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