BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — In the final moments of the legislative session, the Louisiana Department of Health was dealt a $100-million cut. The move blindsided many lawmakers, and the Senate Health and Welfare took testimony on Tuesday to hear how this will impact the state.
“I thought it was a joke, to be honest with you,” said Stephen Russo, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health.
The department said they are very limited on where the cuts are legally allowed under the constitution and rules the House laid out for them. The list where reductions can be made that they provided includes:
- Mental health services.
- Pediatric care.
- Cancer screenings.
That money not only goes toward state programs, it is also used to match federal grants. Without it, federal money will be lost.
“You’re looking overall at around a $400-million to $700-million total impact,” Russo said.
Senators were given the final agreement on the budget with fewer than 30 minutes left in the session. Senate Finance Chairman Sen. Bodi White, R-Central, said he signed off on the document without reading it and admits that was a mistake. He said he should have returned the bill to the calendar and let there be a special session to work out the issues.
“It’s approaching a billion in reduction. And, you know, when it’s your mama or when it’s your child? It makes a difference. When you just talk about other people, until it hits home, it doesn’t matter to you. But let me tell you, it does,” said State Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, D-Lafayette.
State Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, said the $100 million reduction to LDH is not that much in the grand scheme of the department’s approximately $20-billion budget. She pointed to their forecasting methods for Medicaid and said they have over-asked in their budget in the past.
The department said there are many moving targets in determining those figures. They also don’t want to risk coming in under budget, stating the cuts in those situations would be “catastrophic.” Some senators hit back against the idea, saying the programs that could be cut are critical for some communities.
“These are not games. People in this state will die,” Boudreaux said.
The senators shared their frustrations around the happening when the state has hundreds of millions of dollars in surplus that could be invested.
“I don’t see how we get to this point when we have this much money,” White said.
The Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted to send a letter to the governor asking him to veto this part of the budget, saying that it is wrong. He does have the ability to line-item veto portions of the budget to fill in the cut.
