BATON ROUGE - The first salvo was fired over the Jindal administration ship of state Tuesday by lawmakers trying to raise revenues to relieve some of the funding crisis.
Two efforts to raise money by increasing taxes were repelled, but they gave lawmakers a chance to vent their frustration.
Rep. Hollis Downs, R-Ruston, tried to establish a growing revenue stream to fund highway construction by tying the state gasoline tax to the Consumer Price Index.
And Rep. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, proposed raising the cigarette tax by $1 per pack.
Both proposals were rejected by the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday.
