Panel tacks on to outlay list

• By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: May 9, 2008 - Page: 4A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Lawmakers added $9.2 million in projects Thursday to the state’s construction budget.

The additions to House Bill 2 — the state’s capital outlay budget — were relatively restrained in comparison to previous years, when legislators loaded the budget with scores of projects.

The state House Committee on Ways and Means advanced HB2 after adding the projects.

State Rep. Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge and the bill’s author, said there is an attempt to reform what was done in the past.

“I know it’s been difficult,” Greene told the House Committee on Ways and Means. “It’s going to be a good thing.”

State Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, urged the governor’s office to find more funding to allow lawmakers to pursue projects. More money is needed to allow legislators to do more things, he said.

Only $350 million in borrowing is available for $1.46 billion in projects.

Before leaving office in January, former Gov. Kathleen Blanco committed to a slate of projects that it will take the state several years to fund.

Gov. Bobby Jindal proposed a $4.7 billion budget that included no new projects. The budget is for the state spending year that begins July 1.

Jindal left room for legislators to add $20 million in projects.

The governor said he wanted to honor the projects that the previous administration agreed to fund.

Every year, legislators usually turn the state’s construction budget into a wish list by cramming more projects into it than the state can possibly afford. The governor ultimately decides which projects move forward.

The construction budget is a blend state and local projects. The budget contains big-ticket items such as public hospitals as well as community centers and drainage projects for small towns. The budget funds projects over several years.