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House lawmakers support $2K teacher pay raise, but 'firm' on not raising spending cap

With just two weeks left in this year’s legislative session, Louisiana lawmakers are still at odds about whether to raise the state’s spending cap — a decision that could impact educators’ salaries, infrastructure projects and the overall budget.

Gov. John Bel Edwards called on lawmakers Friday to restore $3,000 teacher pay raises directly in the budget to push Louisiana teacher salaries to the southern regional average.

“If we don’t get our teachers to the southern regional average this year with that $3,000 pay raise, plus whatever the locals can do, when will we ever do it? And what statement are we sending to our teachers?” Edwards asked during a Friday morning press conference.

The House advanced a budget earlier this month that did not explicitly include the funding for those raises. Instead, the proposed House budget cut millions from early childhood and higher education in favor of paying off teacher retirement debt, which House lawmakers argued would give local school boards room to fund teacher pay raises on their own.

But after Edwards’ call to reconsider educator pay raises, House lawmakers are now indicating they will support a direct teacher pay raise of up to $2,000, which was first reported by the Louisiana Illuminator and confirmed by Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Winnfield, chairman of the Louisiana Conservative Caucus.

The $2,000 pay raise, however, falls short of reaching the southern regional average, but is viewed positively in comparison to their original budget with no direct raise.

If lawmakers restore the raises without increasing the expenditure limit, they will have to reduce appropriations elsewhere.

McFarland said health care and transportation would likely see the largest reductions in that case. But he noted it would not cause a substantial impact for most areas of the budget.

Edwards’ request to directly restore teacher pay raises follows a $323.4 million increase in the state’s revenue projections for the current fiscal year, pushing the state’s surplus to $2.1 billion, and a $483 million increase for the following fiscal year.

To fund the direct pay raises, Edwards suggested lawmakers should increase the state’s spending cap — a controversial move that requires a two-thirds vote of all lawmakers.

Under current limitations, lawmakers can only spend about $500 million of the state’s $2.1 billion surplus. The state Constitution requires the rest to go into the rainy day fund and other savings.

Senate leadership is in favor of increasing the spending limit and has argued that doing so is necessary to supplement American Rescue Plan dollars to fund one-time expenditures like infrastructure projects. Congress can take back that money in 2026 if the state does not use it.

But getting the required two-thirds vote from lawmakers will be a much harder task in the House, where the majority of lawmakers oppose a spending cap increase. Several have started to wear “36” pins, which is the number of votes they need to stop a spending cap hike.

“We are firm on staying below the expenditure limit,” said Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Winnfield, chairman of the Louisiana Conservative Caucus.

McFarland expressed concern about the anticipated loss of up to $900 million in revenue when a temporary 0.45% sales tax increase expires in 2025.

Other House lawmakers have expressed similar concerns and questioned whether the expiration of the temporary sales tax could leave the next governor facing a deficit.

“It’s the fiscally responsible thing to do,” McFarland said. “It’s prudent to make sure that we don’t have to make drastic cuts in two years.”

Edwards has repeatedly countered these fears by pointing to solid revenue forecasts and said the Revenue Estimating Conference no longer projects a deficit when the temporary sales tax rolls off.

“There just is no excuse given our current fiscal condition and the forecast that we have, all of which are very, very favorable,” Edwards said.

Molly Ryan is a political reporter and covers state politics from the Louisiana Capitol.

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