Lawmakers will convene today for a 90-day regular session with extra money to spend.
How those lawmakers, and Governor Edwards, decide to spend that money will be another matter.
The state will have $3.4 billion in one-time money to spend, about 10 times the normal amount.
Republican lawmakers have positioned themselves to fight Edwards on issue after issue, especially in the 105-member House, which is more partisan than the 39-member Senate.
Republican lawmakers are not yet on board with the governor’s major priorities – to raise K-12 teacher pay by at least $1,500 per year and set aside $500 million to build a new bridge over the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge.
And Republican lawmakers are pushing measures that would roll back the governor’s authority to establish mandates during public health emergencies and that limit his ability to determine which infrastructure projects are budgeted.
Legislators also will take up another issue that has pitted Republicans against Edwards after the governor vetoed the redistricting of the state’s six congressional seats. Edwards wants a map that creates a second Black-majority district, saying that’s only fair in a state where one-third of the residents are Black. Doing so could cost Republican U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow her seat in northeast Louisiana.
