Louisiana budget nears passage as session reaches final days

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Louisiana Senate has adopted a more than $35 billion spending plan for the financial year that starts within days.

Friday’s 38-0 vote edges the House and Senate close to a final budget deal and the end of the special session.

The operating budget that would take effect on July 1 uses hundreds of millions of dollars in stopgap federal coronavirus aid to keep from making deep cuts across state programs and services after Louisiana lost tax collections amid the pandemic.

The spending plan accounts for millions of dollars in tax breaks that lawmakers have backed to help businesses recover from virus-related losses.