3 Louisiana governor candidates provide more budget details at debate. David Vitter's absent.

Louisiana's major gubernatorial candidates were pushed to provide greater detail about their plans for rightsizing the state budget during a live televised debate held at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette Wednesday night (Oct. 14) -- but one of the presumed front-runners in the race chose not to participate.

Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle, R-Breaux Bridge, Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, R-La., and state Rep. John Bel Edwards., D-Amite, all showed up to the event broadcast across the state and sponsored by Louisiana Public Broadcasting and the Council for A Better Louisiana.

The public broadcasting debate is a perennial occurrence during Louisiana's election seasons and one candidates don't typically miss. Still, U.S. Senator David Vitter decided not to attend and has refused to say why he didn't participate.

If elected, the other three candidates committed to holding at least two extra legislative sessions to deal with the state budget crisis in 2016. They all said they would review Louisiana's tax credits and incentives for businesses as well as other set-asides in the state budget -- called statutory dedications -- where money is siphoned off and used for specific purposes. These statutory dedications create less spending flexibility for the state in many ways and have made higher education, in particular, vulnerable to more cuts.

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