BATON ROUGE (The Advertiser) —  Gov. John Bel Edwards’ address to open the Legislative Session took on the tone of a campaign speech, the first time since his taking office the state isn’t faced with a budget crisis either real or imagined, as some Republicans contend.

“This is going to be a very different speech than you are used to me delivering the opening day of session because the budget crisis that for years held Louisiana hostage is over,” Edwards said here Monday in front of a Joint Session of the House and Senate.

“You won’t hear me talk about a fiscal cliff,” he said. “Funding for higher education is stabilized. TOPS is fully funded. And health care services aren’t on the chopping block.

“It wasn’t easy,” said Edwards, the only Democratic governor in the Deep South. “Hard choices and compromises had to be made. But today I can stand before you and say that the state of Louisiana is much stronger and in a much better place than we were just a few years ago.”

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