[StBernard] Great Budget For The People Louisiana

[Westley Annis]

Dear Friends,


This week we wrapped up the legislative session and we achieved our number
one priority - passing a balanced budget that protects higher education,
healthcare and public safety. This is a great budget for the people of
Louisiana that protects key priorities and helps us to continue to grow our
economy and move our state forward. 


This budget continues our work to shrink state government and make it more
efficient for the people of Louisiana while still protecting critical
services. In fact, we've decreased spending by 26 percent and eliminated
10,000 government positions since entering office.  


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We also worked with the Legislature to pass key reforms to improve higher
education, encourage more business investment, and crack down on crime. In
higher education, we passed GRAD Act 2.0 that builds on last year's reforms
to provide colleges and universities more flexibility in exchange for
improving student outcomes. We also passed a reform to constitutionally
protect more funding for the TOPS Scholarship program which is critical to
the success of our children. 


In order to continue to grow our economy, we passed a number of important
tax credits that will bring more business investment to Louisiana and create
more jobs for our people. We also were successful in passing a number of
bills to make our communities safer, including cracking down on human
trafficking, criminalizing fake bath salts and synthetic marijuana, and
stopping sex predators from using social networking websites. 


We passed a strong budget and achieved big reforms this legislative session,
but our work is not done yet. Every year in office, we pushed for bold
reforms and we will continue to look for ways to move our state forward and
make Louisiana the best place in the world to raise a family and start a
career. 



Governor Bobby Jindal