With a projected shortfall of up to $587 million for the next fiscal year, the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee has a slate of meetings stretching into October to review expenditures related to Louisiana’s departments and agencies.

Chairman Jack McFarland and his committee colleagues conducted their first hearing on the Health Department last week, and at least three more meetings are on the books.

The approaching budget deficit was originally forecasted at $340 million, due largely to an expiring .45 percent state sales tax. You can add another $248 million to the tally if lawmakers yet again extend a teacher stipend and underwrite special tutoring programs.

Renewing the temporary sales tax portion is unlikely, especially with anti-tax advocates waiting in the wings to describe any renewal as a tax increase.

Instead, everyone from Gov. Jeff Landry and Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson to freshman legislators and those facing term limits are talking about tax reform as an avenue to prosperity. So far, however, the Senate has been unwilling to go along with a proposed constitutional rewrite or summertime special session.

Not all hope is lost. Even though the 2025 regular session will be fiscal in nature, a special session on taxes could be called in the wake of the presidential election, but before the regular session convenes April 14.

A march towards conservative fiscal practices, or cuts married with streamlining and efficiencies, appear to be gaining more ground in the budget battle. Landry has ordered departments to search for savings, and he has been supportive of task forces and studies to possibly merge certain agencies or otherwise make substantive operational changes.

Shrinking the footprint of government is an agreeable theme in the Republican-led Legislature, where the Appropriations Committee heard a presentation from Health Department officials last week outlining $105 million in state cuts — a figure that balloons to $332 million when federal matching dollars are included.

Even though committee members and the Landry Administration asked departments to identify potential savings, some lawmakers were still surprised to hear programmatic cuts targeting nursing homes, hospitals, pediatric care and other areas of health care.

Appropriations will meet again on Friday (9 a.m. in Room 1) to discuss the 2025-2026 operating budgets for the Justice Department, Office of the Secretary of State, Treasury Department, Corrections Department, Department of Public Safety, Office of Juvenile Justice and the executive department.

On Sept. 13, the committee will hear from the Department of Transportation and Development; Department of Children and Family Services; Department of Economic Development; Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism; Louisiana Workforce Commission; Department of Veterans Affairs; Department of Agriculture and Forestry; Department of Energy and Natural Resources; and Department of Environmental Quality.

Next month, on Oct. 11, appropriators will hear from higher education institutions, the Education Department and Special Schools and Commissions.

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