Amendment To State Budget Passes Louisiana House

An amendment to the state budget over the use of one-time dollars has passed the Louisiana House.

Rep. Cameron Henry's amendment would trim $268 Million out of the $25 Billion budget by forcing state workers to take two furlough days, cutting overtime and cutting vacant positions--all this without making deeper cuts to state agencies. Cameron says, "I think that's important because obviously we want to make sure we don't cut DHH or the areas that all of us find important in our districts, in our areas, our hospitals, role hospitals, so forth."

The amendment leaves it up to the Jindal Administration to find the best way to cut the money from the budget.

But that doesn't please Democrats. Rep. John Bel Edwards says the legislature should pay a bigger role in those tough decisions. "We want to direct a total cut but we want to leave it up to the Commissioner of Administration to allocate those cuts out so that we can point the finger at him with respect to any one of these cuts," says Edwards.

The budget bill covers state spending for the fiscal year beginning July 1st.