Hypocrisy Alert: John Bel Edwards Uses Budget Gimmicks He Criticized In The Past

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards unveiled his budget recently. With Louisiana facing a budget deficit, Edwards also included plans for how to close it, including taking over $100 million from the state’s rainy day fund:

“Edwards is proposing to balance a $304 million deficit by cutting $63 million from state agencies, using $44 million in higher-than-expected tobacco tax revenue and taking the other $197 million from various reserve funds or by delaying spending projects – money that likely won’t be available next year.”

Yet, according to a report in The Advocate, these are exactly the types of measures Edwards has criticized in the past:

“Then-state Rep. John Bel Edwards complained year after year that Gov. Bobby Jindal wasn’t serious about solving the state’s budget problems because he repeatedly relied on gimmicks and one-time money to close funding gaps.”

According to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, state Rep. Cameron Henry, Edwards is “following a plan similar to what he criticized so heavily before.” While state Rep. Chris Leopold criticized Edwards by saying of his budget proposal, “there’s no can left to kick.”

Edwards’ hypocrisy on the use of rainy-day funds exposes the poor job he’s doing as governor. Edwards clearly can’t come up with actual solutions to Louisiana’s problems.