Tagged: budget

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Lawmakers are weighing whether to use Louisiana's "rainy day" fund to fill a $211 million gap in this year's budget.

House Speaker Chuck Kleckley said Thursday that the state could get $215 million from the fund, if two-thirds of the House and Senate agree. He says he's willing to look at using the money because he's worried that higher education and health care would face deep cuts otherwise that could damage services.

The state's forecasting panel downgraded income projections this week.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Halfway through the regular legislative session, lawmakers are still having to deal with next year's $25 billion budget that faces a list of trouble. Those include falling income estimates, ties to uncertain retirement changes and disputes over how much one-time money should be plugged into the spending plan. The state's revenue forecasting panel on Tuesday is planning to tweak income estimates.