Louisiana looks to invest in the future, pay down past debts with extra cash

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) -- Budget talks are off and running before the legislative session and with rare extra dollars, the debate of how it would be best spent is beginning.

A proposed $38 billion budget is before the state legislature. Lawmakers have hundreds of millions of dollars in excess or surplus to work with and they have their own ideas of where it should go.

The governor wants to put $500 million away just for a new Mississippi River Bridge. Some believe since no concrete plans are in place for the bridge, then that much money should not be squirreled away for so long. The Commissioner of Administration and the DOTD Secretary have both said they think a commitment to the project is crucial to help it move along. 

“That water sector issue where we know we’re going to have more applications and more money coming in than we have,” Sen. Cameroon Henry said. “It’s going to be hard at certain points to say we’re going to put this money here to build the bridge when certain parts of the state don’t have clean water.”

Fiscal year 2021 to 2022 is showing an excess of 847 million dollars – which is set to be used to pay down Louisiana’s debts. Four hundred million dollars are being put towards paying the federal government back for the Hurricane Storm Damage and Risk Reduction System and $450 million will pay back FEMA for debt accrued during Hurricane Katrina.

“We’re not being held hostage certainly and there is not any threat that we hadn’t paid so we’re not going to talk about other things,” Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne said. “There are ongoing discussions taking place. But obviously when you pay your bill like this… it gives us another arrow in our quiver to say, 'Hey, look, we made good on our obligation.'”

All this extra money is leading to the state nearing its spending cap. Under the constitution, the legislature can only spend a finite amount of money to prevent overspending. But with all the extra dollars the cap may have to be lifted temporarily to allocate the money. Dardenne said they are working with legislators to have the debt payments not count under the legislative spending to prevent having to bust the cap.

“I’m hopeful and I am confident that when we look back on this in years to come, Louisiana will be recognized as having made wise decisions as to the use of this money,” Dardenne said.

The budget will go through several rounds of debate in the regular session before final approval later in the year.