(By Nolan Mckendry/The Center Square) − As Louisiana prepares for an anticipated budget deficit of nearly $500 million in the coming year, the House Appropriations Committee invited state agencies to testify on Sept. 27 on the potential effects of a 5% funding reduction on their operations.
Officials from the Department of Child and Family Services, which was revealed by The Advocate in 2021 to be critically understaffed and underfunded, painted a grim picture if its operations are cut by 5%.
“None of the options for elimination or reduction are good,” Undersecretary Rebecca Harris said.
Harris noted that when the Louisiana Rehabilitation Services program is underfunded, federal law requires prioritizing assistance for the most severely disabled, leaving many individuals who could be productive but are less severely disabled without support, resulting in tens of millions in unutilized funding each year.
Additionally, Harris warned the committee that a full 5% budget cut would necessitate closing 11 programs for the Jobs for America’s Graduates program, affecting over 600 students and forcing further cuts across the state.
The Advocate’s investigation revealed that the DCFS had lost half of its funding, adjusted for inflation, from 2007 to 2021.
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development is proposing a budget of $872 million for fiscal year 2025, and warns a 5% budget reduction could cut routine road maintenance and funding for critical projects like the Calcasieu Ship Channel in Lake Charles.
DOTD also faces challenges with its aviation program, which could struggle to meet legislative mandates due to reduced funding.
The Department of Agriculture and Forestry also testified, worrying that the cut would worsen the staffing crisis in the Office of Forestry, which sees 54% of discretionary funding from the state. The Committee worried that this would hamper the state’s capacity to fight forest fires, which scorched 60,000 acres in 2023.
“Over the years [the Agricultural Departments] has tremendously taken cuts. We had so many cuts, we didn’t even have what we needed to fight these fires,” Rep. Rhonda Butler, R-Turkey Creek, said, requesting that the Legislature not further reduce the department’s funding.
Dane Morgan, Assistant Commissioner of Management and Finance said that the Department is down 100 firefighters from its peak.