Vermilion Parish legislators comment about the new balanced budget

Coming down to the wire, the state legislature was able to pass a pieced-together state budget that met the governor's demands and avoided costly higher education cuts that had universities worried.
The details of the plan include a tax credit that is for non-existent tuition fees, allowing Governor Bobby Jindal to maintain his no tax increase record. State legislators, however, were less than thrilled with the maneuvering it took to pass the biggest obstacle of the session.
After passing the budget hurdle, there were still dozens of committee reports to sign and four funding bills that still needed to be pushed through. Even with just 30 minutes to go, the
legislature was pushing it.
By law, the session was set to end at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 11. They made the deadline, but many legislators felt they had to hold their noses to get the job done. Local legislators were as conflicted as the rest of their colleagues.
“It’s an embarrassing bill to vote for,” said Blake Miguez (R-Erath). “But with so much on the line and the governor being hardheaded, I had to take one for the people of my district.”
Bob Hensgens (R-Gueydan) was the only legislator from the parish to vote against it.
“We spent 18 months of temporary revenue,” he explained. “That is no way to run the state. Our budget has structural problems and until we admit it and deal with it, we will continue to go from crisis to crisis.
“Our voters deserve better than the yearly scare tactics of shutting down hospitals and universities,” he added.
On the Senate side, Jonathan Perry (R-Kaplan), acknowledged that it was a tough choice.
“We did what we had to do to meet our constitutional obligation to pass a budget,” Perry said. “We had a $1.6 billion budget hole that we could not cut our way out of without closing universities and devastating health care services. We could not do that.
“To that end, we asked both individuals and businesses to temporarily give back some tax breaks which we will continue to examine as we look at a long-term solution for our state budget and revenue issues,” he added. “Obviously, we still have work to do down the road.”
Jindal praised the legislature on passing the budget, which he is expected to sign.
"I’m proud that we came together this session to pass a balanced budget that protects higher education and healthcare without a tax increase,” he said in a statement. “I’m also proud that we took back local control of education from the federal government and put us on a path to get out of Common Core. Lastly, I’m proud that we protected religious liberty through an executive order after legislators determined they wouldn’t take a vote on the merits. It’s been a great session and I’m proud of the legislators’ hard work."