Jindal sets tone for projected surplus

• By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: May 8, 2008 - Page: 8A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Gov. Bobby Jindal urged lawmakers Wednesday to resist embarking on a spending spree with any additional revenue gleaned for state government.

“The state’s history is that these dollars are quickly spent on new commitments,” the governor said.

Jindal is trying to get a jump on a Friday meeting in which state officials are expected to identify unexpected revenue from booming oil prices and robust income tax collections.

The governor said he does not know how much additional revenue there will be.

However, lawmakers already have a number of suggestions on how to spend extra cash.

The ideas being pushed in the current legislative session include:

• A gradual elimination of the state income tax at an eventual cost of $4 billion a year to state coffers.
• A rebate for taxpayers from state government surpluses — money the state has left over at the end of a spending year.
• Projects such as church programs, fairs, elderly services and food banks in legislators’ districts.

“How do we as a state use taxpayers’ money wisely?” he said.

The governor wants to avoid spending, for now, any additional money recognized for the current spending year that ends June 30.

Instead, he wants the money to become surplus, an official declaration that triggers limited spending uses such as road construction, coastal restoration and reducing state debt.

Jindal noted that the state will be expected to help the federal government pay for levee and coastal work.

Any extra money recognized for the upcoming spending year should be used to reduce the amount of one-time dollars that pay for recurring expenses, Jindal said.

The governor said he tried to cut in half the amount of one-time dollars used for expenses that will have to be paid year after year.

He said his proposed $30 billion state operating budget for the spending year that starts July 1 relies on about $400 million in one-time dollars for recurring expenses.