Senate, House Running Out of Time

The Louisiana Legislative Session is to close no later than 6 p.m. this Thursday. Four days are all that remain to work on the year's upcoming budget.

At this point, the House and Senate are at odds regarding use of the rainy day fund, Obama's stimulus plan and delaying a scheduled tax break (not a tax increase like some may want you to believe).

Obviously, this is not a one-year budgetary crisis, and even though I'm incredibly passionate about maintaining higher education in Louisiana - both as a testament to the importance of education and as an economic necessity for the state - I'm intelligent enough to understand that the proposed cuts to higher-ed will not disappear in their entirety. But steps have been taken to alleviate these cuts to a generous degree. For the legislature to abandon those steps in the session's waning moments would be devastating to Louisiana and be indicative of the terrible lack of efficiency in the state's style of government.

I'm confident that the legislature will at least alleviate a huge portion of the proposed cuts, and once the allocation is made to higher education, those charged with efficiency of that sector will take a close look at the state's institutions and make allocations wisely and accordingly. I'm certain you can deduce where I stand on that front, but I will reserve opinions on that for a later post.

Read up on the latest developments in the Advocate:

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/politics/48740312.html?showAll=y&c=y

Senate Finance Committee - Knights in Shining Armor?

As we posted previously, the Senate Finance Committee has been doing diligent work to help preserve as best they can Louisiana's higher education by finding alternatives to a massive $219 million budget cut for this upcoming year.

The Committee has not only called for use of Louisiana's "Rainy Day" fund - a combination of surplus and other funds for use during, you guessed it, economic crises - but they have also passed SB 335, which will stall tax breaks and put a freeze on deductables from state income tax at 65%. This bill is contentious in both the House and the governor's office, but the Senate seems confident in its passage.

With SB 335 alone, the proposed cuts will drop more than half to $100 million - still a hefty cut but relatively much more manageable for Louisiana's higher-ed institutions. At these levels a cut to LSU would certainly be less drastic than previously expected. And if a portion of the rainy day funds go to education, the effects would be even less. Understandably, many areas of the state's economy need attention, and those most important areas should receive rainy day consideration.

SOS - Save Our Schools thinks education should be right there at the top of the list.

Source: http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/46871232.html?index=14&c=y

Butch Gautreaux's Proposed TOPS Cap Defeated

A big victory in the Louisiana legislature today for higher education as the Senate Education Committee almost unanimously killed Gautreaux's proposed TOPS cap. Read the article in the Advocate:

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/46426507.html?index=1&c=y

Big props to LSU's student representation at the capitol, with J Hudson and Martina Scheuermann getting pub in the Advocate.

I found this particular quote of Gautreaux's to be quite funny:

"Gautreaux said the change would help stabilize TOPS without imposing undue burdens on students and their parents.

'This bill does not prevent anyone from attending college,' he told the committee. 'Let’s be honest.'"

Your bill would not have prevented Louisiana high school students who are TOPS eligible from attending college, Sen. Gautreaux. You're right about that. But it would have prevented them from attending college in Louisiana. The top students would not stay in Louisiana to receive a college education if they weren't eligible for such a great financial assistance package - they'd head elsewhere.