[StBernard] Louisiana state budget gaps start to come to light

[Westley Annis]

After a week of scrutiny, Gov. Bobby Jindal's $25 billion state spending
proposal for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is beginning to show some
trouble spots. Elected officials and legislative staff said that some
revenue the Jindal administration had baked into the budget wasn't
necessarily guaranteed to materialize, and other obvious expenses don't have
any revenue assigned to them. 

For example, the Department of Agriculture and Forestry was asked to rely on
money that it might not be able to generate or can't use flexibly,
Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain said. Some of the revenue the Jindal
administration had included is dedicated by law to one specific purpose and
shouldn't be used to cover other expenses, he said. 

"I can't take dedicated funds and move them to non-dedicated needs. That's
illegal," Strain told the House Appropriations Committee on Monday. 

Jindal's budget analysts, housed in the Louisiana's Division of
Administration, disagreed with Strain's characterization of the the
Agriculture Department's funding sources. Commissioner of Administration
Kristy Nichols said her staff used extra money that was left over from last
year in dedicated funds for wider purposes. None of the programs paid for
with dedicated funds was jeopardized.    

Sen. Fred Mills, R-New Iberia, said he had heard from state regional human
services districts that their budgets also posed problems. The districts,
which provide health care, were being asked to draw a portion of their
revenue from user fees at a rate that they didn't think they would collect,
he said. 

"Can they hit their projections on self-generated revenues? What I am
hearing is they can't hit those numbers," Mills told Senate budget staff.   

The Senate's education budget analyst, David Ray was skeptical that
Louisiana would bring in $88 million in extra tuition payments, as the
Jindal administration anticipated. "Whenever we budget these tuition
increases, we don't collect all of them," Ray told the Senate Finance
Committee.  

Senate budget analysts pointed out that some items had not been included in
the Jindal administration's spending plan. For example, Louisiana usually
ends up having to pay money as a result of legal judgments against the
state, and the Legislature often ends up setting aside $20 million to cover
these costs. But so far no money has been included in the budget for such
payments, said Sherry Phillips-Hymel, director of the Senate's fiscal
services division. 

And while the administration's budget provides for a retirement cost
increase and possible merit-pay jump for most state employees, higher
education staffers haven't been included. If the Legislature wants to boost
pay and benefits for those in higher education, it must find the revenue to
do it, according to the Senate budget analysts. "Higher education retirement
still needs to be addressed and paid for," Ray said. 

Lawmakers won't be able to fund all the programs as they did for the current
year. Increased retirement costs and other expenses will make most programs
and services more expensive for the state.  

"There is a projected shortfall of $600 million. If you were doing the exact
same budget (as the current year's), you would have a $600 million
reduction," Phillips-Hymel said.