As South Louisiana settles into recovery mode following historic flooding, the State Bond Commission met Tuesday to talk about Louisiana’s fiscal situation.
The state’s financial advisor, Renee Boicourt, says the impact of the flooding on the state’s budget is still undetermined.
“Everyday, a little bit of new information comes in with respect to the revenue side and the expenditure side, particularly associated with the floods,” she says.
In a meeting of the Sales Tax Streamlining and Modernization Commission, Agricultural Commissioner Mike Strain says the flooding across South Louisiana has impacted everything from sugar cane to soybeans to rice to crawfish.
“The early estimates are a net loss of $110 million," he says, "without considering the loss to our seafood industry, our crawfish. That could easily reach $200 million.”
Twenty parishes are included in the federal disaster declaration. One of the hardest hit was Livingston. Predominately rural, Livingston Parish Law Enforcement is asking the state for permission to extend the repayment time as they borrow money to help pay for their response and recovery costs. Concerns about revenue led the agency to pay off the loan in ten years.
State Treasurer John Kennedy says “normally ten years under normal circumstances would raise some concerns. But we’re not in normal circumstances.”
He suggests other local government agencies may be doing the same thing.
Even the before the flooding, the state was preparing to take out a revenue anticipation note in order to have cash on hand to pay bills. The amount of that loan has not been finalized yet.
Director of State Bond Commission, Lela Folse, says “the Department of Revenue is working on estimating the impact of the flood on receipts.”
More workable numbers are expected by September 15th, when "the commission can adopt a final resolution, approve the banks, the structure and the amount," she explains.