Governor John Bel Edwards targets conservative leaders, asserts power in vetoes

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Gov. John Bel Edwards pushed back on legislative leaders’ financial power and targeted conservative lawmakers with 12 vetoes to the state budget plan Wednesday night.

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He erased six projects located in conservative House members’ districts totaling $1.8 million. The projects were spread across House Bill 1 and House Bill 516, both sponsored by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerome Zeringue, R-Houma.

Edwards, a Democrat, took out $400,000 for a utility substation project in Erath, the hometown of House Republican Caucus Chairman Blake Miguez. He also removed $1 million for roads in Winn Parish, where House Conservative Caucus Chairman Jack McFarland and another conservative representative, Gabe Firment, live.

The governor erased three projects that touch Republican Rep. Danny McCormick’s district in North Louisiana. These include $50,000 for Bossier Parish recreational improvements, $26,000 for signs in the town of Greenwood and $75,000 for street improvements in the City of Plain Dealing.

Besides this small group of projects, Edwards left most of the $70 million in lawmakers’ earmarks alone.

But the governor struck four provisions out of House Bill 1 that would have given the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget — made up of senators and House members involved in the state’s finances — more oversight over state government spending.

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