Jindal administration presents proposed budget to lawmakers
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Gov. Bobby Jindal proposed a $30.1 billion budget Friday for next year that includes new dollars for education, health care and work force training, along with the expectation of more than $100 million in cuts to business taxes.
Jindal's budget chief, Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis, presented the governor's spending recommendations to the joint House and Senate budget committee after days of offering snippets of some of the plans.
She called the proposal "the beginning of a new direction for state government" with more than 1,000 fewer government jobs and a lesser reliance on one-time dollars to pay for ongoing programs.
Though the governor campaigned on ways to cut government spending, Jindal's spending recommendations are larger than the budget approved by lawmakers a year ago. Much of the budget continues to involve direct federal aid for hurricane recovery. Although it is federal money, it flows through the state budget and affects the bottom line figure.
Davis said most state agencies asked for new program dollars in the 2008-09 fiscal year, which begins July 1, but that few new initiatives could be funded because of a struggle to keep the budget balanced.
Jindal wants $110 million in business tax breaks, new dollars for public colleges and the dedication of millions more in state tax dollars to transportation, she said.
Davis has provided few specific details about the budget proposal she's put together, but she's offered some highlight recommendations: money to hire and train 50 new state troopers, to continue work on a statewide emergency communications system, to increase public school teacher pay and to boost spending on college and university programs.
Lawmakers approved a $29.7 billion budget for the 2007-08 current year, but with new pass-through federal recovery aid for housing reconstruction after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it has grown to $34.3 billion.
Lawmakers will begin work on a final state operating budget for the upcoming year, working off Jindal's spending recommendations.
On the table for spending is $982 million in non-budgeted cash from the current fiscal year, the 2007-08 budget year, that can be spent in any way lawmakers choose. Also, the state has $599 million more in state general fund money for the 2008-09 budget than lawmakers had to spend when they developed this year's budget.
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