Gov. Edwards touts promises kept in final ‘State of the State’ address
17th April 2023 · 0 Comments
By Piper Hutchinson
Contributing Writer
In his final “State of the State” speech, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards highlighted the accomplishments of his tenure: erasing a multibillion-dollar budget deficit, expanding Medicaid, amassing a massive state surplus and – perhaps most importantly to many – not canceling a college football season.
Edwards, a term-limited Democrat who will leave office next January, delivered his annual address Monday, April 10, for the opening day of the legislature’s 2023 session.
“When I took office in 2016, the state had a $1 billion dollar budget deficit to close out that fiscal year and a $2 billion deficit for the following year,” Edwards said. “Not only was football not canceled, the Tigers went on to win themselves a national championship.”
Seven years ago, Edwards took the helm of a state going through an acute fiscal crisis. Former Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, sent the state’s budget into a spiral by slashing taxes then using one-time revenue to cover recurring expenses and making extreme cuts to higher education spending.
Amid that uncertainty, Edwards said in his first days in office that if the legislature didn’t get the budget in order, Louisiana’s institutions of higher education would run out of money. Among other things, that would mean no college football.
At the time, his comment on the worst case scenario was met with outrage by college football fans, who took it as a threat rather than a warning.
In an interview last Monday, House Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Tanner Magee, R-Houma, remembered feeling dismayed at the governor’s remarks, which he listened to as a freshman legislator.
“I knew immediately that that was going to be a talking point where people were gonna say he was over exaggerating… to undercut the argument on the severity of the issue,” Magee said.
Fortunately, the warning never came true. Edwards also noted the recent LSU women’s basketball national championship in his address, drawing a parallel between the teams’ success and his expectation that his successor in the Governor’s Mansion will inherit a $2 billion surplus.
The governor and lawmakers often comment that Louisiana has gone from using one-time money on recurring expenses to using recurring revenue for one-time costs. Now that the state budget is in a better position, Edwards has his eye on additions to his legacy, including an increase to teacher and college faculty pay to get Louisiana closer to the Southern Regional Education Board average. He also pledged to push for a boost in the state’s minimum wage beyond the $7.25 federal rate, an attempt he’s made unsuccessfully multiple times in the past
Magee said the governor’s speech ruffled feathers among some Republican legislators.
“It was a lot less ‘let’s work together’ more like ‘I told you so,’” Magee said in an interview after the speech, adding he felt the legislature should get more credit for improvements the governor claimed.
The governor included funds in his executive branch budget to increase the minimum wage for state employees to $10 an hour.
Edwards also made perhaps his strongest call yet for Louisiana to abolish the death penalty. He had been noticeably mute on the topic until last month, when he stated his viewpoint at a Loyola Univer-sity event. House Bill 228, by Rep. Kyle Green, D-Marrero, would end capital punishment in the state.
The governor, who identifies as a devout, anti-abortion Catholic, is also supporting House Bill 346 by Rep. Delisha Boyd, which would add rape and incest exceptions to the state’s strict abortion ban.
While Edwards has said throughout his term he supports the exceptions, he has signed multiple abortion restrictions into law that did not include them.
Edwards is also noted his support for bills to help working women, including proposals to close the gender pay gap and provide paid family leave. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2022, women earned 82 cents for every $1 men earned.
“As someone who’s had some success in political campaigns, I’ll offer this advice: Equal pay is extremely popular with voters – and women vote more than men,” the governor told lawmakers. “So if you won’t support it because it is the right thing to do, support it because it is what your voters want you to do.”
Edwards legislative goals, many of which he has called for year after year, face an uphill battle in the GOP-controlled legislature. The Republican Party has a super-majority in the House of Representatives, meaning that it can override the governor’s veto. Another legislator, Rep. Jeremy LaCombe of New Roads, announced a switch from the Democratic to Republican Party, according to The Advocate.
LaCombe’s change gives Republicans a one-member cushion over the 70 votes needed to override a veto.
Magee acknowledged that while he feels there are problems with the death penalty, he does not anticipate Green’s bill will get far.
On rape and incest exceptions to the state’s abortion ban, Magee predicted a close vote, noting that the exceptions have broad popular support.
“One of the issues has always been that you had Democrats carrying the pro-life bills, so I don’t think there was any Republican who wanted to wade into softening it up,” Magee said.
While this session is a fiscal session, meaning that lawmakers will primarily be focused on budget and taxes, each legislator is allowed to file five non-fiscal bills. Despite the limitation on bills, the session is likely to be marked by high-profile fights on a number of social issues, including LGBTQ+ rights and abortion.
If any anti-LGBTQ+ bills make it to the governor’s desk, his veto is uncertain. Edwards put the LGBTQ+ community on edge when he allowed a bill that requires athletes to compete as the sex they were assigned at birth to become law without signing it.
At a press conference earlier this month, Edwards declined to say whether he would veto any such bills, but remarked that they were not helpful.
“Those kinds of bills don’t create jobs. They don’t deliver health care. They don’t grow the economy. They don’t add to infrastructure. They don’t solve real problems,” Edwards said. “It’s my hope that the legislature won’t commit itself and its limited time and resources to those culturally divisive bills.”
This article originally published in the April 17, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
