Rep. Hensgens, Sen. Perry speak to Vermilion Chamber

What direction Louisiana takes fiscally in the coming years and well beyond hinges heavily on what happens Oct. 24, 2015.
Speaking Thursday during the Vermilion Chamber of Commerce’s General Membership meeting, Sen. Jonathan Perry (R-Kaplan) said the next governor of Louisiana, elected later this fall, will have the most impact on the budget.
“In my humble opinion,” Perry said, “whoever it is, the next governor is going to be crucial. That is not just for the next four years, but I’m telling you that will be for the next 12, 16 years.”
Rep. Bob Hensgens (R-Gueydan), who also spoke during the event, agreed.
“When you have a $1.6 billion budget hole and you have a lot of big issues going on in the state,” Hensgens said, “we (legislature) cannot carry statewide issues. You need a leader at the helm and it’s got to be the governor.
“He or she has got to be the one to step up and say this is what needs to be done.”
As it currently stands, on the ballot for governor this October will be Republicans Scott Angelle, Jay Dardenne and David Vitter, and Democrat John Bel Edwards. Whichever man wins the election, either on the Oct. 24 primary, or the Nov. 21 runoff, he can begin to have an effect on the budget not long after being inaugurated.
“The answer is a special session,” Perry said. “The governor can literally call for a special session the day after he is inaugurated. If it’s not the next day, it will probably be in the first week.
“For the future of Louisiana, it’s one of the best things we could do.”
The legislature faced a $1.6 billion shortfall during this past session, which ran from April 13 to June 11. Hensgens said the 2016 session will include a similar deficit, making a prior special session pertaining to the budget paramount.
“Our next budget begins next July about $600 million short before we start session,” Hensgens said. “We are going to have the same difficult things that we dealt with this year.
“Whoever is governor is going to have to call a special session and put us to work to try to fix these long-term issues with the budget, that have used tricks for so many years to fix.”
Perry said the beauty of the special session is clear focus.
“When you have a special session just for the budget,” Perry stressed, “you are not going to be voting on the pink elephant license plate. I don’t mean to make that a joke, but what I am saying is that every bill and every amendment has to be germane to the call of that session. It’s all going to be budget discussion, nothing else. That may not seem like a big deal. That’s huge because you don’t have to worry about what is going on in a bunch of other committees.”
One major issue with the budget is what comes in versus what goes out.
“We are 50th in per capita tax collection in the United States,” Hensgens said. “I am happy for that. I’m a conservative, but we are 22nd in spending. We have had a lot of great things, like the oil field to pay for some of this stuff.
“We need to figure out if we are 22nd in spending or 50th in taxes.”
One chamber member posed the question of the impact a Constitutional Convention, which has not taken place since 1973, could have on the budget. Around 80 percent of the state’s budget is Constitutionally protected.
“I don’t believe there will be a Constitutional Convention anytime soon,” Perry said. “If you get in, and I don’t want to sound like a broken record, and you have a special session and deal with the budget, you have no clue how much that’s going to clarify a lot of the issues that a Constitutional Convention could clarify.”
Hensgens said the path to that clarity will ultimately come from leadership at the top.
“A governor in his first term in office can get all of that done,” Hensgens said. “It just takes that guy to walk in the first day with the idea to do that right thing and get it done.”