Budget battles loom- Money issues will dominate session
by MARK BALLARD AND MARSHA SHULER - Advocate (excerpt)

Right off the bat, one of the first things the Louisiana Legislature must tackle is whether state government can use one-time funds to cover an expected shortage of money to pay for government services, says state Senate President Joel Chaisson II.

The Louisiana Legislature convenes at noon Monday for its regular 2010 session. The annual meeting of the state House of Representatives and the state Senate must adjourn by 6 p.m. on June 21. With 1,230 bills and nine resolutions in the House and 677 Senate bills, lawmakers will consider and vote on a wide variety of subjects. They range from allowing handguns at state parks, in churches and near schools to opening documents created by the Governor’s Office to the same public access required of other state government officials.

About 100 proposed constitutional amendments have been filed, including some that would transfer the duties of the lieutenant governor to other agencies, remove the state treasurer from the line of gubernatorial succession, establish term limits for some local elected officials and allow more flexibility to raid dedicated funds. But mostly, legislators agree, they will be tackling how to balance state government’s budget in light of a growing shortfall in revenues and how to reorganize the state’s universities to operate more effectively.