The House narrowly passed a budget that would fund TOPS at 80% and maintain higher ed funding, but would implement deep cuts in healthcare funding, potentially ending public-private partnership hospitals that care for the poor. House Appropriations Chairman Republican Cameron Henry says the state cannot afford to maintain its current healthcare spending.
Henry says, "The growth at which Medicaid is expanding is a rate we cannot attain. This is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue; this is a math issue."
The proposed spending plan goes to the Senate Finance Committee who will meet Sunday. It’s possible the Senate may not even vote on a budget.
House GOP Chairman Lance Harris says the budget is the best they could do with the funds they have available.
Harris says, "What we are doing here is that we're dealing with the facts that we have today. We're dealing with the levels of funding that RAC has projected today."
House Democrats nearly unanimously voted against the budget. New Orleans Representative Gary Carter says if passed, the spending plan would kill people.
Carter says, "If these cuts come through, it would be reasonable to expect the loss of life because people won't have as much access to healthcare as they currently have."
House Democratic Chairman Robert Johnson went after legislators who voted yea on the proposed budget.
Johnson said, "We are constitutionally obligated to pass a budget, but we are not constitutionally obligated to pass this one and shame on us if we do."
Governor John Bel Edwards has announced that if the spending plan reaches his desk, he will not sign it, and reports indicate that legislators are planning on beginning a special session mid-May to attempt to pass a budget that replaces the 663 million dollars in funds that are not present in this spending plan.