Budget-balancing special session reaching its end Wednesday

(AP) — College students and parents of children with developmental disabilities were waiting into the final hours of Louisiana's special legislative session to learn if Gov. John Bel Edwards and lawmakers would broker a tax deal to stave off hefty cuts to their programs and services.

The Democratic governor and leaders of the majority Republican Legislature negotiated behind closed doors on a possible budget and tax agreement that, if reached, would require a flurry of votes before the special session ends Wednesday at 6 p.m.

Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego, said he was confident a deal could be struck that would stop the threat of damaging cuts to public colleges and health care services this year — but he worried about next year's spending plan.

The 25-day special session began on Valentine's Day, with dire warnings of college campus shutdowns, shuttered safety net hospitals for the poor and eliminated health programs for the disabled and elderly.

The session was a stark greeting for three dozen freshmen lawmakers who barely learned how to cast votes before being asked to choose between the highly unpopular choices of raising taxes or taking a hatchet to higher education and government services.

In office since January, Edwards said the budget instability he inherited from Republican former Gov. Bobby Jindal was so awful that without higher taxes, the cuts threatened to keep the LSU Tigers from playing football this fall.