In a vote 90 minutes before the 6 p.m. adjournment, legislators also passed a much-maligned tax credit known as the SAVE fund that led Gov. Bobby Jindal afterward to say he would sign the budget and tax measures into law.
The governor told reporters in his fourth-floor Capitol office that legislators had passed a balanced budget that did not include a net tax increase, thanks to the SAVE fund.
Legislators said final approval of the budget will mean full funding for the state hospitals now under private management around the state — including the New Orleans hospital that opens in August — and will give Louisiana’s colleges and universities nearly as much money as they sought. The higher education institutions had been threatened with deep budget cuts since the session began on April 13.
Thursday votes closed a $1.6 billion projected budget deficit — at least on paper — and ended the state’s biggest budget crisis since the late 1980s. But it will take at least a day of sorting through Thursday’s final budget and tax votes to determine exactly to what extent legislators solved the problem.
