Jindal donor got first contract

• By MARK BALLARD
• Capitol news bureau
• Published: Mar 30, 2008 - UPDATED: 03.30.08

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The first business to benefit from state economic development aid under Gov. Bobby Jindal is run by a man whose family and businesses donated at least $135,250 to the governor’s campaign and local Republican Party causes during the past year.

Jindal introduced the donor — Gary Chouest, of Galliano — as a leader of Louisiana business in the same March 9 speech when the governor proclaimed before the Legislature that the state’s political culture had moved beyond “who you know” motivations.

Jindal used part of the state’s $1.1 billion surplus to put $10 million in a Terrebonne Parish port expansion. Jindal also gave an additional $4 million grant to the project.

The state Legislature approved both proposals earlier this month.

The taxpayer dollars help Chouest’s privately owned companies expand a state-of-the-art shipbuilding facility and to upgrade the port where the new plant is located.

Jindal said he did nothing improper in pushing a deal that creates 1,000 new jobs in two years time.

“Anyone who looks at the facts will clearly see that it’s a great success story for Louisiana,” Jindal said. “We were really completing this deal that was started under the previous administration.”

Critics are quick to call Jindal’s help and Chouest’s contributions as “quid pro quo,” a Latin term describing a transaction or agreement involving one thing for another.

Some of the project’s strongest supporters said that however incorrect, the initial impression of the governor directing millions of taxpayer dollars to a large financial supporter does raise questions.

Jindal’s head of business recruitment, Stephen Moret, said Jindal had little involvement in the deal. Business and state officials began talking two years ago, and former Gov. Kathleen Blanco approved $13 million in borrowing for construction at the port.

Chouest’s company received Blanco’s blessing to receive $65 million in low interest, tax-free federal GO Zone bonds for the project, the bond commission said.

The project, which broke ground Friday, improves the port near Houma. The improvements would be owned by the Port of Terrebonne and leased to Chouest’s LaShip LLC, which would be contractually required to create 1,000 jobs and a $54 million payroll by 2011, said Moret, secretary of the state Department of Economic Development.

But, it’s the connection between public investment and the way the Chouest family made private political contributions that sparked criticism.