BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana lawmakers are still struggling to agree on an approach to stabilizing state finances a decade into seesawing cycles of repeated budget gaps and short-term fixes.
They open their latest special session Monday. It's their fifth special session called by Gov. John Bel Edwards to address budget uncertainty in two years.
The session begins at 4 p.m.
The Republican-led Legislature and the Democratic governor are staring down a $1 billion budget hole that hits July 1, caused by the looming expiration of temporary sales taxes.
Edwards wants the expiring taxes replaced with other taxes, saying without the revenue, Louisiana will be forced to make damaging cuts to education, health care and public safety programs.
It's unclear if he can reach a deal with enough GOP lawmakers for taxes to pass.