Jay Dardenne Blames GOP For 'Gargantuan Failure' of Session

Louisiana's Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne tells 101.7 / 710 KEEL's Robert J Wright and Erin McCarty that Republicans reneged on a deal to solved the state's budget shortfall, a gap described by Governor John Bel Edwards at nearly a billion dollars.

Dardenne tells KEEL listeners that "the reason we had the special session was because the Speaker of the House, Taylor Barras), the President (of the Senate, John Alario) and the Governor agreed...on what would be done." Dardenne added that Speaker Barras had "agreed to raise almost what the Governor...had requested. That all blew up within the first day or two of the session."

The Commissioner also said that Governor Edwards will propose that the regular legislative session (which resumes Monday) end early, so that the legislature "can come into another special session that will end when the regular session was supposed to end." That way, Dardenne explains, the state will avoid the added cost of another special session.