Though legislators did not close the state’s looming fiscal shortfall by a single penny, neither Rep. John Stefanski nor Rep. Bob Hensgens feel that the recently ended special session was a complete failure.
Stefanski of Crowley and Hensgens of Gueydan, both Republicans, addressed Friday morning’s Business Over Breakfast event sponsored by the Crowley Chamber of Commerce at The Rice Palace Restaurant.
“Many people are painting the session as a complete failure,” said Stefanski, the freshman representative elected only last year. “I see it different. I see it as the Republican Party taking a stand and showing that we’re not going to be bullied into voting on taxes we’re not in favor of.
“I’m proud that I stood my ground.”
Hensgens, the former mayor of Gueydan who has served in the House since 2011, had a slightly different take on the session.
“It was an intramural fight between the Black Caucus and the governor as to who’s in charge of (the Democratic) party,” he said. “The Black Caucus won that fight.
“And you know what? I’m great with that because now we have somebody we can sit across the table and talk with.
“I don’t think the session was a failure. I don’t think the session needed to be called … in fact, most Republicans thought the session didn’t need to be called.”
Stefanski, described by Hensgens as “a breath of fresh air” in the House, outlined the back-and-forth negotiations and broken promises of the session.
He said “there was a plan” going into the session that basically included keeping one-quarter of the state’s fifth penny of sales tax paired with spending reforms.
The session opened and the topic of “excess itemized deductions” was raised.
“That caused a lot of issues,” he said.
Then there was the Black Caucus’ plan to “compress tax brackets” — a plan Stefanski said would have resulted in nearly everyone in the state paying more income tax — in lieu of the itemized deductions.
Different concepts were paired, then separated.
“Deals changed so many times,” he said. “Things changed and changed and changed so many times. Finally we just adjourned early.”
Hensgens agreed that there was some form of general plan on the table when the session began, but added that the major reason for failure is that the governor and the Democratic Party in general failed to include the Black Caucus in their initial discussions.
“There will be another special session,” Hensgens assured. The regular session (which starts Monday) will probably be cut 10 or 12 days short.
“This was a fight in the Democratic Party that took two weeks to complete,” he continued. “When Democrats won’t vote on income tax increases, it’s time to go home.”
