WAFB Channel 9, Baton Rouge, LA |Budget cuts take center stage at the Capitol

Budget cuts take center stage at the Capitol

By Tyana Williams - bio | email

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - It's the question puzzling Louisiana lawmakers. How much money do they take away from certain departments to solve a $2 billion shortfall? Right now, higher education and healthcare are on the chopping block, but Louisiana's stimulus check could lessen the pain.

It was a meeting full of questions. By April, the Senate Finance Committee needs to know where it has to cut the state budget and by how much. There's a long list of areas that cannot be touched. "Legislative pay, I think it's protected by the constitution," one member said.

Thursday's discussion focused on discretionary areas of state spending, areas vulnerable to cuts. "Most of it, 49% for education and 36% for human resources, which includes DHH, that's 85% of budget goes to education and human resources."

In the crowd, health care workers and educators wondered what to expect. One thing on the senators' minds is how President Obama's economic stimulus package could potentially prevent serious cuts. "If you look at that, we could get $922 million. That would equal $461 million a year, over the next two years. Of this amount, 61% they want states to use for education would go to help offset costs to higher education," said budget analyst David Ray.

The other $180 million could go to offset anything health related. "This isn't gonna solve all our problems, gonna have to be cuts to be made. But it helps alleviate cuts ya'll will be facing, government be facing," added Ray.

No decision was made Thursday. The Senate Finance Committee says it is still working on crunching the numbers. So for now, that means the money is still up in the air. The Senate Finance Committee did not set another meeting date, but said it will have several more of these meetings before it makes a decision on how much to cut.