Governor John Bel Edwards delivered a televised state address Thursday night outlining the state’s current budget deficit and a plan to fix the problem.
Edwards also delivered alarming news that if the state legislature does not take immediate action, hospitals and other state funded programs could disappear.
Associate Dean of political science at UL Lafayette, Dr. Pearson Cross fills KLFY in on how much power the governor has.
“Constitutionally he is allowed to cut up to 5% from nearly every state enterprise.”
Edwards is set to hold a special three-week-long legislative session starting Sunday.
Dr. Cross tells KLFY’s Kellie Brown that as the chief administrative officer there are a few things that Edwards cannot do without approval from the legislature.
“He cannot raise taxes by himself, he’s going to need the legislature to do that. Not only that, he’s going to need a two-thirds vote of the legislature to do that so he’s going to need 70 votes in the house out of 105 to raise taxes.”
Edwards can make necessary cutes without approval from the legislature Dr. Cross adds.
Mentioned in Edwards speech is that if cuts and tax hikes are not made, many of the state’s public universities could close down by April 30.
“He’s responsible for paying the bills if the legislature does not act and provide money he has to make whatever cuts that he can.”
According to Dr. Cross this upcoming legislative session is very important, he says fi they cannot agree to raise taxes the result will be detrimental to colleges and students.
“If you block the prices then you get things like not funding TOPs or shutting down colleges or universities or perhaps not providing healthcare that’s needed.”
Dr. Cross tells KLFY news 10 that this is not the first time that the state has faced this type of crisis and he is confident that in time the state will get through this.