BATON ROUGE, La. — Bills have been moving through the special session on crime at a rapid pace – with no exact price tag on what it will cost to implement Gov. Jeff Landry's tough-on-crime agenda.
Sen. Jimmie Harris, D-New Orleans, says one thing he knows for sure, the programs are not paid for.
"Do we have to cut somewhere? Do we have to rob Peter to pay Paul? Is it funding that's currently there. These are all of the questions that have not been answered when the bills come over."
Harris sits on the Senate Finance Committee, which spent the day considering the fiscal impact of the public safety bills.
"Is it a dollar?" Harris asked. "Is it $100,000? Is it a million? Is it $20 million? Nobody seems to know."
Proposals to lengthen sentences for certain crimes, eliminate probation, and limit an inmate's ability to get out of jail early could end up costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars.
But there are a lot of unknowns, such as whether judges will sentence offenders to longer prison terms and whether harsher penalties and truth in sentencing will have a deterrent effect, meaning fewer people committing crimes.
Some argue there is also a cost associated with allowing crime to continue on its current trajectory.
"There's going to be a cost one way or the other," Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Pineville, said. "It's an unfortunate cost because you would hope that the ultimate outcome is that you discourage criminal behavior. That is the idea of increasing penalties and increasing the severity of the consequences of illegal action."
"I see that the certainty of punishment is going to be the predominate theme for the future," said Mike Ranatza, Executive Director of the Louisiana Sheriffs Association. "We're going to have more people go into the justice system. It doesn't necessarily me that the range of sentencing will be longer."
Senator Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe, agrees something has to be done about crime, but she says it should be done in a fiscally responsible way.
"Which means not coming back a year or two when these bills take an impact and say oh my God, we're in a deficient what will we cut," Jackson said. "We all know where the state of Louisiana cuts in the middle of a deficit, the most drastic cuts are taken from higher education and healthcare."
There is talk about possibly amending some of the bills to say the programs can be implemented subject to appropriations, which means when the money is available.
While lawmakers have until March 6 to wrap up the session, they are now on pace to adjourn on Thursday.
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