BATON ROUGE- With $1 billion in temporary taxes expiring in months, Louisiana House Speaker Taylor Barras says he expects lawmakers in his chamber to rally around tax ideas by January to close the shortfall.

Barras struck an optimistic tone about chances of reaching an agreement in a majority-Republican chamber that has been reticent to support any taxes.

He's been visiting with House members around the state and says they appear more engaged as the July 1 tax expiration grows closer. He says he's encouraged by the conversations.

If the Republican House speaker can build consensus around a slate of ideas, that could break a logjam between the House and Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards that stalled nearly all tax proposals this year.

Barras meets with Edwards next week to discuss the budget.