Louisiana's newly elected Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards threatened the GOP-controlled state legislature by stating "you can say goodbye" to LSU Tigers football if lawmakers reject a package of tax increases to fix a $940 million budget deficit.
In a televised address Thursday, Edwards said campuses could run out of money and be forced to shut down in April, naming the Louisiana State University football team as one program that could be lost in cuts,
the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
"If you are a student attending one of these universities, it means that you will receive a grade of incomplete, many students will not be able to graduate, and student-athletes across the state at those schools will be ineligible to play next semester," Edwards said.
"That means you can say farewell to college football next fall."
The newspaper
reprinted the speech and posted a video.
The governor says if the tax increases aren't approved by the end of June, Louisiana could be forced to cut vital health services as well.
"These are not scare tactics. This is reality," Edwards said. "An unstable state budget will not only hurt children and working families in our state, it will devastate communities, businesses and local government as well."
The state GOP treasurer, John Kennedy, gave a televised rebuttal following the speech, the Times-Picayune reports.
"Gov. Edwards is proposing to implement the largest tax increase in the history of Louisiana," Kennedy said, the newspaper reports. "It will wreck our economy, already fragile."
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