State Treasurer John Kennedy pushed Tuesday to purge legislators’ special projects from the state budget.

But other members of the Commission on Streamlining Government balked at the idea of cutting off funding for what are referred to in state government as nongovernmental organizations — or NGOs.

Critics often deride NGOs as “slush funds” because they supposedly sometimes benefit favored legislators’ districts.

Several members of the streamlining commission argued Tuesday that NGOs aren’t all bad.

Commissioner of Administration Angèle Davis said eliminating NGOs would affect water systems, battered women shelters, Councils on Aging and volunteer fire departments.

Kennedy disagreed.

“You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” he said.

State Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles, said the projects are no longer the problem they were in the past.

He said Gov. Bobby Jindal led changes that brought more transparency to which projects make it into the budget.

Organizations now must fill out paperwork that includes their operating budgets and a list of officers.

Geymann said the state helps worthwhile projects such as the Special Olympics, Councils on Aging and food banks.

Kennedy said “embarrassing” projects still are slipping into the budget.

He said legislators have a project addiction that dates back to Gov. Edwin Edwards, who treated the projects as political slush funds.

“It’s time to end our addiction to this process,” Kennedy said.

The commission is trying to find ways to cut costs in state government, which is facing a nearly $1 billion shortfall for the fiscal year that starts July 1, 2010.

Recommendations are due to the governor and the Legislature by the end of the year.

The commission is in the process of reviewing suggestions by subcommittees.

Kennedy’s NGO recommendation was one of the suggestions that emerged from a subcommittee.

Alexandria businessman Roy O. Martin III questioned whether the suggestion would fix a problem or make it worse.

He said organizations are liable to simply be inserted into agencies’ budgets, making their state funding harder to track.

Kennedy said state government would not be in a financial crisis if money had not been given for years to NGOs.

Kennedy said state money should not go, as it has in the past, to community organizations such as the Purple Circle Social Club of Baton Rouge.

The commission did agree to recommend that:

n  The state Department of Environmental Quality should lease office and warehouse space from the state Department of Agriculture.

n  The state Department of Environmental Quality should stop operating a library.

n  The state Department of Public Safety and Corrections should hire a private company to conduct background checks.

n  Private doctors should be used for the state’s war veterans’ homes.