Thunder's rolling down this track
Well you don't know where you're goin' now
But you know you won't be back”
Bruce Springsteen “Land of Hope and Dreams”
------------------------------------------------
The Governor
is proposing to eliminate 10,200 jobs, 7,300 of which are in the hospital
system. Many of these jobs won’t be lost as private companies are partnering to take
over many of the state hospitals. In addition, 846 currently-unfilled positions
in Higher Education will be eliminated.
The budget
fills a $1 Billion deficit primarily by cutting $780 Million from LSU’s Public
Hospital System under the assumption that 8 of the 10 state public hospitals
will be privatized. Thus far, only 5 hospitals have announced plans to partner
with private groups and none of these deals have been finalized.
In addition,
the Governor proposes using $424 Million in one-time money.
Stop me if
you’ve heard this one before. Perhaps, last year?
In fact, a
lot of the money used to close the budget deficit hasn’t yet materialized and
may never materialize.
In addition
to the hospital savings, the one-time money includes anticipated money from the
sale of state properties and proceeds from lawsuits.
And, therein
lies the problem.
How many
times can Louisiana keep going to the “one-time money” well?
What happens
if the anticipated hospital savings doesn’t come to fruition? Or if the
properties sell for less than expected (or don’t sell at all)? Or if the money
from the lawsuits doesn’t come through?
And, this
doesn’t even include the potential loss of income tax revenue that will be replaced
by a higher state sales tax. Officials continue to maintain that the Governor’s
plan will be revenue-neutral. Since every 1% increase in the state sales tax
will yield about $700 Million, at a proposed 1.78% sales tax increase, the math
doesn’t add up to replacing $3 Billion in lost revenue.
The short
answer is, the state will face another budgetary hole next year possibly even
deeper than this one.
I guess we
all need to have the optimism of Springsteen:
“Ya leave behind your sorrows
Ya this day at last
Well tomorrow there'll be sunshine
And all this darkness past”
Ya this day at last
Well tomorrow there'll be sunshine
And all this darkness past”
