As currently constituted, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s most pressing budget task will be to resist government-as-usual to continue right-sizing state government and to fund priorities that improve quality of life within Louisiana.
When introduced last week described as a “standstill” budget, spending rises less than one percent. However, that masks a lot of change, principally from two sources: the disappearance of pandemic-related grants and one-time spending attached to that but countered by continuation of escalating health care costs triggered by Medicaid expansion almost a decade ago. In all, while state means of finance fall two percent, a federal funds increase of around 3.5 percent more than offsets that to increase the total adjusted budget a few hundred million to $45 billion.
Lesser movement comes from shifting priorities. Not surprisingly, health care continues to vacuuming up more dollars, although there were a couple of novel situations. A decline in collections from motor vehicles and from state lands produced more demands on the general fund. On the spending side, juvenile justice and child welfare matters receive a boost, as does general public safety. And, contrary to claims made by advocates of committing to increasing food aid in the summer with federal dollars that this wouldn’t cost the state, the budget had to include extra state dollars to cover that.
