For years, Louisiana struggled to balance its budget while addressing the needs and wants of residents seeking improved education, infrastructure and health care outcomes.
In November, the governor and lawmakers held a special session to restructure the tax system by increasing sales taxes and cutting income taxes. Some lawmakers want to revisit the tax changes in the legislative session that begins April 14.
As always, there will be disagreements over financing the programs, what services people want or lowering the taxes people pay. Solvethebudget allows you to choose. It lists some proposals that lawmakers could consider, along with estimates of what the ideas might cost or save based on expert analyses.
You weigh the choices and see if you can come up with a balanced budget. By law, the state budget must balance for the ’25-26 year.
Lawmakers appropriated a $49.6 billion total state budget for the current financial year that ends June 30. Nearly half of that money comes from Washington. The portion generated by state taxes, licenses, fees and other Louisiana revenue sources is your focus, roughly $25.3 billion.
Choose your priorities and see if you can keep the budget in balance. When you submit your budget, you can see the choices others made.
Good luck!