JBE predicts prisoners on the streets, people dying, horrible life in La. if no new taxes

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Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration has presented to senators a grim picture of the fallout from the House-proposed version of next year's budget, with the governor threatening a veto if anything resembling the spending plan reaches his desk.

Over dozens of hours of hearings, agency leaders say they'd have to release prisoners early, shutter health programs and damage critical services in the financial year that begins July 1. House Republican leaders who drew up the plan call that scare tactics and say state government can't afford the spending trajectory proposed by the Democratic governor.

BUDGET DISPUTE

The House passed a budget, opposed by nearly all of its Democratic members, that would leave $206 million on the table, to hedge against GOP leaders' expectations that state income estimates are too rosy.

Appropriations Chairman Cameron Henry, a Republican who had a heavy hand in drafting the House version, predicted agencies would tell lawmakers "the world's going to fall apart" under the scaled-back spending plan. But he said he didn't believe that was true.

Edwards replied that without the money, health services, the child welfare agency and prisons would face unnecessary, harmful cuts.

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