BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Louisiana Senate has agreed to tap into the state's "rainy day" fund to fill a more than $200 million deficit in this year's budget.
Senators voted 37-0 Tuesday for the proposal by Sen. Jack Donahue, Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. It would allow lawmakers to take nearly $205 million from the fund.
The money would plug a gap in the current year budget before the fiscal year ends June 30.
There was little debate in the Senate on the idea. But the legislation heads next to the House, where a bloc of GOP lawmakers say they won't support using the rainy day money unless deeper cuts are added to next year's budget.
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Senate Concurrent Resolution 128 can be found at www.legis.la.gov
