Governor Officially Calls June Special Session On Taxes

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. John Bel Edwards has officially called his second special session on taxes, aimed at bailing out the budget, to begin June 6 and run for less than three weeks.

The Democratic governor has talked for months about his plans to bring lawmakers back to Baton Rouge, asking them to make tax changes that could raise more dollars for the budget and stave off deep cuts to health care and education programs.

On Friday, Edwards set the dates and terms of the session. The session will begin 30 minutes after the current regular legislative session ends. It must wrap up by June 23.

It's the second special session on taxes, after one earlier this year that raised $1.2 billion for next year's budget, not enough to fill all gaps.