LFT President Steve Monaghan, left, with Louisiana Budget Project Director Eddie Ashworth.
In a series of press conferences around the state, the Better Choices for a Better Louisiana coalition made a powerful case for raising new revenues for the state, and announced that the coalition will have a lobby day on Wednesday, May 4. (Please click here to see the BCBL legislative agenda.)
With Louisiana facing a $1.6 billion budget shortfall, coalition spokespersons said that Governor Bobby Jindal’s plan for more cuts without any new revenue cannot solve the state’s problems.
“Doing more with less” is a hollow promise,” Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan told reporters. “The state is not doing ‘more with less’; it’s doing less with less. The current budget proposal sacrifices education, health care and the quality of life issues that could provide a better future for the families of Louisiana.”
LFT is a founding partner of the coalition, which now includes about 40 organizations statewide. Partners include a growing number of environmental, business, faith-based, labor, health, education, community groups, and consumer groups from throughout Louisiana that want to invest in our state’s future.
Coalition partner Eddie Ashworth, director of the Louisiana Budget Project, said that the budget cuts of the past few years have only hurt the state.
“If cutting taxes and slashing services was the right strategy for success, we would have high employment, low poverty, a healthy population and a robust, growing, well educated state,” Ashworth said. “We know that’s not the case.”
The Better Choices coalition will urge lawmakers to consider a balanced approach to the budget, instead of relying only on cuts.
The coalition released this statement asking citizens to visit the capitol at noon on May 4:
This day is important to share our legislative agenda with lawmakers urging them consider better choices and a balanced approach. We need you with us and your voice needs to be heard by our lawmakers telling them that we want them to advance public policies that increase transparency as well as state revenue. We need to spread the message to our elected officials that an approach based solely on cutting education, human services, health care, and other vital services risks serious, long-term damage to the state and its people.