Tagged: state legislature

BATON ROUGE — Looking to fill a deficit of more than $200 million in this year's budget, the Louisiana Senate has agreed to tap into the state's "rainy day" fund. Senators voted yesterday for the proposal by Sen. Jack Donahue, Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. It would allow lawmakers to take nearly $205 million from the fund. 

BATON ROUGE — Louisiana lawmakers have agreed to shorten voting hours on most election days, and Gov. Bobby Jindal must decide whether to accept the bill. Currently, poll hours run from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. The measure pushed by Secretary of State Tom Schedler will push back the opening to 7 a.m. on Saturday elections. The change will start in 2013. 

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Senate's budget-writing committee refused to agree to deep cuts pushed by House Republicans for next year's $25 billion state operating budget.

Senators on the Finance Committee restored an estimated $350 million to next year's 2012-13 spending plans. 

BATON ROUGE, La. — The Senate's budget-writing committee refused to agree to deep cuts pushed by House Republicans for next year's $25 million state operating budget.

Senators on the Finance Committee restored an estimated $350 million to next year's 2012-13 spending plans. They added back the one-time money removed by a bloc of conservative House Republicans, and they also tapped into available health care financing and plugged in further piecemeal dollars.