For LSU students, Spring 2017 marks the first semester that the Taylor Opportunity Program (TOPS) is not being fully funded by the state. As more budget cuts to higher education loom large over campus, law makers are set to head to Baton Rouge to try and make up for Louisiana’s $300,000,000 plus deficit. State Rep. Steve Carter believes that the legislature has partially failed the students.
 “They went in good faith doing the core courses and the grade point average and the ACT, that they needed to do and we let them down,” Carter said.
 Carter, a member of the House Education Committee, is a strong proponent of higher education. The Baton Rouge native argues that in order to protect students the state needs to convene a constitutional convention to deal with how funds are diverted. According to Carter, higher education and health care are always the first areas to have their funding slashed.
 “It still remains to be seen, but I do think the feeling of the most of the people, and I can only speak on the house side, is that they’re tired of continuing to cut higher ed.”
 It is expected that Gov. John Bel Edwards will call a special session to deal with the state’s budget crisis. This would be the second session called in the past year to deal with the deficit. As was the case last time around, higher education’s funding will be on the chopping block.
 “The governor is very powerful in this state,” Carter said. “It depends on what the governor would like to see. “I would hope that [higher education] is not cut as deep as it has been, but you never know in this business.”
 Carter opposes Edwards’ call for raising revenue, arguing that it is premature because the state has not yet received payments from taxpayers that deferred their 2016 deadline for a various number of reasons.
 “In north Louisiana they had floods early last year,” Carter said. “We don’t know how many dollars the income tax, because they deferred the income tax, will generate.”
 The state has long utilized its “rainy day” fund to help lessen the deficit. Carter points out that as the fund is being depleted, the problems remain.
 “All we do is kick the can down the road by utilizing the rainy day [fund].”
 Carter remains focused on trying to limit the burden placed on students attending college, and feels that many of his colleagues in the House of Representatives feel the same way.
 “I don’t care how you educate someone, but give them an opportunity to get a good education. So that’s my number one priority and I think it’s a pretty high priority with a lot of other people also.”