Just as the blazing heat and humidity are ripe breeding grounds for catastrophic hurricanes and tropical storms, the state’s revenue and spending structures are breeding a financial catastrophe capable of devastating Louisianians’ way of life — laissez les bon temps rouler.
With an already expected budget shortfall of $713 million for the next fiscal year, the beginning of August witnessed a $4.6 million cut to higher education due to last legislative session’s shortcomings, and next spring the numbers will once again jump tremendously.
The familiar scent of peril will fill the air, and LSU will need students’ voices to rise once more.
The Legislature, while funding higher education as students demanded last spring, failed to create long-term solutions to the state budget and higher education funding.
Whether this was a function of the uncooperative man residing in the Governor’s Mansion or a quickly applied bandage to stop the bleeding, the budget problems still loom, and higher education’s fate apprehensively stands on the edge of a crumbling cliff.
While legislators managed to close the $1.6 billion budget gap, the revenue created by reforming tax exemptions is only temporary. According to The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, legislators wrote most of the reforms to expire within the next few years.
The $103 million in revenue created by suspending the business utility tax exemption will disappear next fiscal year, as the law providing the revenue expires without renewal.
A bill cutting business income tax exemptions brings in money in the short run, but it will eventually phase out and the revenue will once again disappear. PAR also notes the controversial cap on the film tax credit is only temporary.
Big business and near-sighted politicians are benefiting at your future’s expense.
This vicious cycle of budgetary peace, mayhem and perceived solutions will hinder Louisiana college students’ ability to compete with other millennials around the country.
This fall cannot afford to witness a decrease in the activism students showed
during the last legislative session.
We blamed Gov. Bobby Jindal for our financial woes, but now he’s almost out the door. And a funding crisis is knocking.
The election of our next governor can ensure there is no need to shout, “No funds, no future” on the steps of the State Capitol. Students need to pay attention to local legislators up for election, ensuring they support funding for our futures.
Remember at one time our voices rang across the state, and we brought awareness to our cause. Speak now about protecting our funding so as to not repeat history and to avoid cementing financial troubles as a penance for our beloved state.
The drums of war are sounding. Your future is still at risk. Be the change you want to see in our state. Make the difference others are too scared to make.
Justin DiCharia is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from Slidell, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @JDiCharia.