Jindal wants to cut $1 billion

• By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Sep 17, 2009 - Page: 1A

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Gov. Bobby Jindal asked cost-cutting panels Wednesday to help him identify nearly $1 billion in state budget cuts.

The reductions include $146 million for the state’s public colleges and universities, the governor said in letters to the Commission on Streamlining Government and the Postsecondary Education Review Commission.

Jindal wants the streamlining commission to find $802 million in savings and the education commission to suggest ways to trim $146 million.

“Rest assured my office and all of my cabinet members stand ready to work side-by-side with you in achieving outcome-driven savings throughout state government,” Jindal wrote the streamlining commission.

Both commissions are tasked with finding ways to cut costs in state government, among other things. They are supposed to wrap up their work in the next few months, making recommendations for other state officials to consider.

In a telephone interview Wednesday night, Jindal said he wanted to remind the commissions of the magnitude of the state’s economic problems.

Jindal said his goal is to point out areas where the commissions can make a contribution.

“We’ve been engaged with the commissions since the first day,” the governor said. “I want to make sure they don’t produce a report that simply sits on the shelf.”

Jindal warned the commissions that a nearly $1 billion shortfall is projected for the state budget year that starts July 1, 2010.

Some of the shortfall is due to an expected change in the percentage of costs that the federal government pays for the Medicaid program that provides health-care coverage for the poor and uninsured.

The federal government wants the state to pay more of the program’s costs because Louisiana’s per capita income rose after the 2005 storms.

The Jindal administration contends income rose because of insurance payments and other assistance related to the hurricanes. The change in what the federal government pays could cost the state an additional $700 million over two years.

In lean economic times, health care and higher education traditionally are hit the hardest with budget cuts.