La. Legislature is quietly sitting on $106 million in reserve funding

By Julie O’Donoghue
Contributing Writer

(lailluminator.com) – The Louisiana Legislature ended its last budget cycle June 30 with $106.5 million worth of reserve funding, according to audits the Legislative Auditor recently released.

The lawmakers’ reserve funding has gone largely untouched for years and is rarely discussed during debates about state spending. In fact, legislators complain when other agencies keep any unallocated cash on hand, let alone over $100 million.

Over the last year, legislators have also complained about the condition of the Capitol complex, particularly the Pentagon Barracks where they are leased apartments at a below-market rate. They have blamed Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration for not doing enough to keep up the barracks and Capitol’s physical plant, while not offering up any of their own reserves to fix the problem.

The Louisiana House ended the last fiscal year with $34.6 million on hand. The Senate had $15 million and the Legislative Budgetary Control Council, which Republican legislative leadership oversees, had $54.2 million at the end of June.

The Legislative Fiscal Office, which provides financial analysis and economic predictions to the lawmakers, also ended the last budget year with $2.6 million in the bank.

In spite of large amounts of reserve funding, lawmakers shifted more of the state’s general resources into the Legislature’s coffers last spring. The Legislature increased its own budget by $12.2 million in the current fiscal cycle.

The biggest funding jump went to the Legislative Budgetary Control Council, where financing went from $8.6 million last year to $11.8 million this year.

The council pays for some of the House and Senate’s joint staff and also outside, private contracts. For example, the money to hire private attorneys to defend the Republican-backed state political district maps in court comes from control council.

The Legislature also said it increased its own spending in order to pay for a new 21-member security team at the Capitol.

This article originally published in the February 13, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.