Gov. John Bel Edwards said he won’t seek any new taxes when the Legislature meets next year and doesn’t anticipate calling any Special Sessions outside of the regular meeting.

“I don’t anticipate the need to raise revenue next year; I don’t envision the need to do that,” Edwards said after he delivered a State of the State address to a Monroe Chamber of Commerce crowd Tuesday. “I’ve been very pleased with where we are.”

In June the Legislature passed and Edwards signed a new .45-cent sales tax to raise about $466 million annually and a law eliminating a tax break on out-of-state income that will raise about $34 million annually to avert a budget crisis.

The new revenue replaced a 1-cent sales tax that expired on June 30. Edwards emphasized to the crowd that Louisianians will actually pay about $500 million less in taxes this year because of the expiration of the full penny.

“We have turned the corner and are on a much better path to prosperity than we have  been in some time,” Edwards said.

The tax deal kept the state’s popular college scholarship program TOPS and colleges and universities whole with only minor cuts to most agencies other than the Department of Corrections, which lawmakers vowed to adjust.

But it took three Special Sessions in 2017 to strike the deal. Those followed two Special Sessions in 2017 and one in 2016.

That’s enough, the governor said, “unless we face some unforeseen crisis or disaster, which I pray isn’t the case.”

“In a lot of ways we’ve already done the hardest work by reaching a bipartisan compromise and achieving a responsible budget,” Edwards said.

“It’s already paying dividends,” he said. “Two credit agencies (Moody’s and S&P Global Ratings) have removed us from the ‘negative’ watch list to ‘stable.’ That’s important because the better your rating the less it cost to (borrow money).

“We began the fiscal year (July 1) with much more budget stability than we’ve had in a long time.”

Edwards, a Democrat who must run for re-election next year in a Republican red state, said “bipartisan and compromise aren’t bad words. That’s how you get things done,” he said.

The governor also touted northern Louisiana success stories like ongoing construction of a $274 million carton plan and logistics center in Ouachita Parish from Graphic Packaging and DHL that will protect 800 existing jobs and create about 100 new ones.

He also praised a proposed $40 million private medical school at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and the leadership there of President Nick Bruno, who hails from Edwards’ beloved Amite region.

“You’re going to see a medical school open on the ULM campus and it won’t cost the state money to construct or operate but it will educate doctors who are going to practice primary care all over Louisiana,” he said.

“We have momentum as a state, and you’re going to see it continue,” he said.