Louisiana budget not only task: Here's what other issues lawmakers are eyeing at upcoming session

Fretting over the possibility of a fiscal nightmare, state lawmakers are behind their usual pace in preparing for the regular legislative session.

Other than passing a state spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1, legislators cannot legally raise revenues or consider most fiscal matters in an even-numbered year. So handling the expected $1 billion-plus shortage in revenues by any other way than just whacking spending needs to be done in a special session, which Gov. John Bel Edwards says he won’t call until a majority of lawmakers get on the same page.

Though preoccupied with fiscal matters, some lawmakers have started looking at how they will fill the 60 days between March 12 and June 4 for the regular legislative session scheduled in the constitution.

“I haven’t thought about it much to tell truth,” House Majority Leader Lance Harris said, adding that he’s focused on fiscal solutions that would attract 70 votes in the 105-member House needed to pass many of the budget options. “But I know members are putting together their bills.”

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