BATON ROUGE (AP) — Gov. John Bel Edwards has signed Louisiana's more than $28 billion state operating budget into law ahead of the Saturday start of the new financial year.
The Democratic governor struck four items with his line-item veto. Those vetoed items included language limiting how Louisiana's health department can make budget reductions and prohibiting the Civil Service Commission from blocking pay raises at Louisiana's levee districts.
Edwards' office provided the veto letter to The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The budget was adopted by lawmakers in a special session after they failed to reach a compromise in the regular legislative session.
Colleges will escape cuts for the first time in nearly a decade. State workers will get a pay raise. But mental health services and early childhood education programs will take reductions.
– by AP Reporter Melinda Deslatte
