Pandemic’s ripple effect on state’s budget unclear

Rob Tasman, executive director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is the bishops’ public policy arm, says the state’s looming budget crisis promises to make the upcoming legislative session – whenever it begins – a wild ride with no easy answers for Catholic entities such as schools and Catholic Charities-operated assistance programs.
    

The situation is so fluid that Tasman, like other lobbyists, does not even know when the session will begin.
  

“The date right now is supposed to be sometime in mid-April,” Tasman said, but it’s almost certainly going to be pushed back because of all the stay-at-home orders,” Tasman said. “The looming concern that I have is whatever the legislators do, it appears that the only business they’ll be taking up is to craft a budget for the state.”
 

Catholic entities on watch
    

Tasman said Catholic schools obviously will be watching the legislative session closely because they rely on state funding for things such as mandatory reporting of student scores, student attendance, transportation, lunch programs and other educational programs.
    

“The economic impact of this virus on the state’s budget is almost catastrophic,” Tasman said. “You’ve got the fluctuation in a negative direction of oil prices. You have lack of state sales tax revenue because people aren’t buying, obviously. 
    

“You have casinos not operating, and the proceeds from casinos fill different gaps within the state budget. And then you’ve got just the overall potential impact of unemployment. People are really trying to understand what this means at the end of the day.”
    

Tasman said he was still trying to get clarity from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Small Business Administration about whether or not Catholic schools could participate as separate entities in the Payroll Protection Program that promises $350 billion in payroll relief as part of the CARES Act.
    

The “small business” aspect of the program covers businesses that have fewer than 500 employees. Every school would qualify for the program if it filed separately, but if the Archdiocese of New Orleans were required to file as a “school system,” it would have more than 500 employees.
    

Tasman said the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) also was reviewing the CARES Act for hidden language that might disqualify Catholic schools from participating in the program.
    

Peter Finney Jr. can be reached at [email protected].