KEY TAKEAWAYS: Lawmakers are waiting for Gov. Jeff Landry‘s return from Greenland to clarify his stance on state pay raises. A tight deadline is approaching to finalize Louisiana’s budget before the June 1 legislative session deadline. Proposed raises for teachers, judges and state officia ls are in flux amid conflicting budget priorities. Lawmakers are weighing use of savings funds while facing a projected state budget deficit.   Louisiana Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said the state legislature will seek clarification from Gov. Jeff Landry on how far he wants to take his “no pay raise for state employees” stance and other budget items once the governor returns from Greenland. It’s just unclear when the governor is coming back to Louisiana, including to Henry. Landry has been working overseas in the Arctic territory as a special envoy for President Donald Trump since Sunday. The governor’s staff in Louisiana won’t say when his trip is supposed to end. Henry and Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, who is Louisiana’s top official when Landry is out of the state, also said in interviews they haven’t been told when he will return. The Senate president seemed unbothered by the governor’s absence and said the legislature will continue to move the state’s annual budget plan forward while waiting for more guidance from him. The spending blueprint needed to be finalized in the next week and a half. The lawmakers’ annual lawmaking session must end June 1 with an approved budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. “On the pay raise stuff, we’ll finalize when he gets back,” Henry said Wednesday morning. The Senate Finance Committee is supposed to do a heavy rewrite of the budget plan Thursday, followed by a full vote of the Senate Tuesday. State worker pay increases on the chopping block On Monday, Landry declared through a social media post sent from Greenland that “nobody in state government” would get a pay raise if public school teachers didn’t receive one this year. The governor’s and lawmakers’ initial plan to give teachers a permanent salary increase fell through when voters rejected a constitutional amendment at the ballot box last weekend. Henry said he hasn’t talked to Landry directly since the governor made that social media post. But the legislative leadership has tried to abide by the governor’s request by putting proposed pay raises for judges and prosecutors on hold, though local district attorneys’ offices will still receive money to hire more staff. Large pay raises for Landry’s cabinet secretaries and statewide elected officials, including the governor himself, are also off the table, Henry said. A proposal to expand the type of financial benefits that state legislators receive to include a housing stipend, general monthly allowance and more travel reimbursements is also unlikely to move forward, according to the Senate president. Henry said those adjustments have been made “assuming [Landry] doesn’t further clarify what he was saying, what he meant by no one gets a pay raise.” Legislative leaders have no current plans to remove the routine market rate adjustments in pay for thousands of state workers included in the budget plan. These cost $84.8 million for classified employees alone in the next fiscal year, according to an estimate provided by the legislative fiscal office. The Louisiana State Civil Service Commission had already signed off on those pay increases, including those for prison workers and state firefighters, Henry said. If Landry wants to undo those raises, he’ll have to take it up with the commission personally. “The governor or the commissioner [of administration] has to go before the civil service board and say don’t give the pay raises” if he wants those raises eliminated, Henry said. There are also several bills to increase compensation for people who work elections, including one that has already passed the legislature and awaits the governor’s signature. Henry said the lawmakers will wait to see if the governor vetoes House Bill 550, which increases pay for parish board commissioners from $50 to $100 per election, before making decisions on other election worker bills. If it gets vetoed, they may consider pulling legislation that increases pay for other types of election workers as well. “I  don’t have a desire to send him a bunch of bills he’s going to veto. That’s a waste of time,” Henry said. Teacher pay cut still looks likely There are still no plans to try to avoid a public school teacher and school support worker pay cut for the 2026-27 school year, according to Henry. Landry hasn’t said whether he would support legislators trying to find a way to restore teacher pay after Amendment 3, meant to guarantee a teacher salary increase, failed Saturday. Assuming the budget proposal stays as it is, teachers and school support staff workers will lose $2,000 and $1,000, respectively, that they have received through annual stipends for the past three years. Landry and lawmakers would have to find an additional $200 million in the current budget to extend the stipends again. That’s unlikely to happen so late in the session when the money has already been promised to other departments and programs. The state is also facing a $104 million deficit for the fiscal year that begins July 1, meaning cuts had to be made even before teacher pay became an issue. “Obviously, [the governor’s] staff has the same ability I do to go move money around, so if they want to give us a plan, I haven’t seen that yet,” Henry said when asked if teacher pay would be restored. Henry was also skeptical that the legislature would tap into a $2.4 billion savings account, called the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund, to pay for one more year of the teacher stipend. He said giving the “temporary” stipend for a fourth year next year would make it a recurring expense for the purposes for state budgeting, which would trigger more restrictions on spending the $200 million needed from the savings account. In general, the Legislature has rules in place to try to make it harder for lawmakers to spend “one-time money” — such as that from a savings account — on recurring expenses like teacher pay. Some of those triggers include raising the vote threshold to pass such a spending measure to two-thirds of House members, which can be hard for leadership to reach. “I don’t know whether that’s even possible with this late date … with everything else going on,” Henry said of avoiding a teacher pay cut. Using savings for infrastructure, business incentives The Senate president said state lawmakers plan to tap into that same savings account to provide one-time funding for infrastructure and economic development incentives. Projects to upgrade roads, bridges, water systems, fire departments and government security will receive some of this funding, Henry said. There will also be one-time allocations for economic development incentives to lure businesses to the state and more funding to deal with crime issues, though Henry wasn’t specific about those proposals. The amount of money diverted from the savings account will be less than lawmakers used last year, when they claimed $1.2 billion from the same fund for similar projects, Henry said. The list hasn’t been settled yet, and lawmakers will wait for the governor to return from Greenland to finalize what receives the money. In general, Landry and legislators will have to slow their spending going forward. They are facing a major budget deficit for the first time in years after lowering personal and business income taxes in 2025 and eliminating some other business taxes. Revenue for the state is coming in lower than expected and automatic deposits made into that Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund, one of the state’s two primary savings accounts, are starting to drop off. The fund will not be replenishing itself the way it once was for the near future based on recent projections from state economists. ...read more read less