LA's New Budget Year Begins Today
Saiward Pharr, WRKF; LRN
July 1, 2010
Baton Rouge, LA
Louisiana's new budget year starts today. The Senate largely wrote the $26 billion state spending plan. Governor Bobby Jindal says he's generally happy with the final product, "it helps us prepare us for future budget challenges. I know certainly there were some that wanted to see further reductions to higher education and health care. Others wanted to restore additional funding to reduce these reductions. No one got everything they wanted, but I do think it's a good budget."
 |
photo: flicker.AMagill
Lawmakers decided to use
the state's Rainy Day fund
and tax amnesty dollars
to help balance the budget.
|
House Speaker Jim Tucker disagrees. He's unhappy the Senate balanced the budget by using one-time dollars from the state's Rainy Day Fund, and last fall's tax amnesty. "That gets us through this year," Tucker says, "[and]gives us the ability to start thinking about how to deal with these problems for next year, but definitely kicks the can down the road to the 11-12 budget."
This year's budget includes a more than 1 billion dollar drop in state general fund revenue. So, it includes layoffs of 1300 state workers and cuts to social services, the charity hospital system, and other programs. One of the only areas not cut is the funding formula for public school districts.
Related Articles
