Edwards: Special session on taxes more likely every day
BATON ROUGE — With most of his tax agenda in tatters, Gov. John Bel Edwards said today that it’s becoming more likely he’ll call a special session over the next year to deal with a mid-2018 budget hole that state lawmakers have done little to patch.
“Time is closing out on us, and quite frankly. I’m disappointed with how far behind the Legislature is,” Edwards said on his monthly radio call-in show.
Louisiana faces a more than $1 billion budget shortfall that hits in July 2018, when temporary sales taxes passed by lawmakers expire. Edwards wants lawmakers to pass a variety of tax measures to close the gap, known in the Louisiana Capitol as the “fiscal cliff.”
Most tax bills must start in the House, and no large revenue-raising tax bills have received backing there so far amid strong anti-tax sentiment in the majority-Republican chamber.
Read more: http://www.houmatoday.com/news/20170517/edwards-special-session-on-taxes-more-likely-every-day