[StBernard] Keeping Louisiana Competitive

[Westley Annis]

Dear Friends - 

This week we announced economic development initiatives we will pursue in
the upcoming legislative session in order to keep Louisiana competitive and
attractive as we work to foster more job growth.  We announced proposals to
extend the Quality Jobs Program, the Research and Development Tax Credit and
the Technology Commercialization Credit/Jobs Program, and to enhance the
Digital Interactive Media Production Tax Credit. 

These programs are critical tools that are working and helping us to bring
thousands of jobs to Louisiana so our people can find rewarding careers. For
the announcement, we were joined by executives from three companies - Baton
Rouge Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Globalstar and Esperance - who cited the
tax credits as helping to convince them to create jobs in Louisiana. These
economic development programs are at work across the state helping us create
jobs and we must extend and enhance them to create even more opportunity for
our people. 

We also announced this week that we are protecting and fully funding the
K-12 education formula. Additionally, we proposed a student-based budgeting
pilot program that will help improve student achievement. As I told the
Monroe News-Star
<http://cl.publicaster.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c7597%7c9390&digest=zn
Uld3HrDc2%2bPKpTM5Sizw&sysid=1> , we will fight attempts to cut K-12 funding
and continue to look for innovative ways to educate our kids. 

This week we also traveled to Minden where we broke ground at the future
site of Northwest Louisiana Technical College's new campus. As I told the
Shreveport Times
<http://cl.publicaster.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c7598%7c9390&digest=zt
SI9tc1abr%2bmMySQH0eDA&sysid=1> , this new campus is critical because it's
all about creating jobs and we want Louisiana to have the best-trained
workforce in the country. 

Finally, on Valentine's Day, we were honored to host a reception for
Louisiana's Longest Married Couple. As the New OrleansTimes-Picayune
<http://cl.publicaster.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c7599%7c9390&digest=wO
fDH89aRsLTLO506CghWg&sysid=1>  reported, Dorothy and Ralph Richards of
Slidell are just shy of celebrating their 81st wedding anniversary. 

Sincerely, 

Governor Bobby Jindal