BATON ROUGE (AP) — Gov. John Bel Edwards has agreed to delay budget cuts for another month, as lawmakers push for him to find a way to spare college campuses from the slashing.
As part of his proposal to close a more than $300 million deficit, the Democratic governor had planned an $18 million cut to higher education. That would be about 2 percent of colleges' general state financing.
Lawmakers urged the Edwards administration Friday to reconsider that cut, citing years of state financing reductions to colleges and a hit to the TOPS scholarship program this year.
Edwards could make the cuts without legislative authorization, but he agreed to delay the entire budget-rebalancing plan until December, to continue negotiations with lawmakers.
During that time, the budget hole only is expected to grow worse.
– by AP Reporter Melinda Deslatte
