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Headlines : Louisiana
Gov. Bobby Jindal budget proposal includes privatization, pension overhaul to balance budget
A key element of the budget is Jindal's pension reform plan, which includes provisions to increase the retirement age to 67 for employees younger than 55, require employees to contribute 3 percentage points more of their paychecks to their retirement, enroll new employees in a 401(k)-style plan and merge two of the state's four retirement systems.
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Headlines : Louisiana
Jindal: State budget will be lower next year
"Bottom line, it will be a smaller budget than this year," Governor Jindal said of the FY2013 state budget. "It will have fewer state employees." And by state law, it will be balanced.
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Headlines : Louisiana
Louisiana state pension proposal features 'cash-balance' plan, later retirement
Gov. Bobby Jindal rolled out a proposal Wednesday for a massive overhaul of state employee pension systems that would move some new workers to a 401(k)-style plan, increase the retirement age for some existing employees and require increased contributions from some in the existing systems.
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Headlines : Louisiana
Part of budget shortfall caused by one-time money
The $895 million shortfall projected for the upcoming budget year shouldn't come as a total surprise to Louisiana lawmakers or Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration.
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Headlines : Louisiana
State's budget fix could be temporary
The state has two different types of problems - revenue shortfalls and overspending, particularly in the public education budget. About $43 million of the recent $251 million budget adjustment was to pump more money into public schools because of an enrollment increase.
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Gov. Bobby Jindal
Office of Governor Bobby Jindal
P. O. Box 94004
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9004
Phone: (225) 342-7015
Fax: (225) 342-7099
Governor's Website
Ray Stockstill, Director
Division of Administration
Office of Planning and Budget
P.O. Box 94095-1201
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9095
Phone (225) 342-7005
Fax: (225) 342-7220
http://www.doa.louisiana.gov/opb/index.htm
Ray.Stockstill@la.gov
2012 Legislative Calendar: Regular Session convenes March 12, adjourns June 4.
Rep. James R. Fannin (D), Chair, House Appropriations Committee, larep013@legis.la.gov (318) 259-6620
Rep. Cameron Henry (R), Vice-Chair, House Appropriations Committee, henryc@legis.la.gov (504) 736-7135
Rep. Joel C. Robideaux (R), Chair, House Ways and Means Committee, larep045@legis.la.gov (337) 984-1091
Rep. Patrick Williams (D), Vice-Chair, House Ways and Means Committee, larep004@legis.la.gov (318) 676-5990
Sen. Jack Donahue (R), Chair, Senate Finance Committee, donahuej@legis.la.gov (985) 727-7949
Sen. Norby Chabert (R), Vice-Chair, Senate Finance Committee, chabertn@legis.la.gov (985) 858-2927
Sen. Neil Riser (R), Chair, Senate Revenue & Fiscal Affairs Committee, risern@legis.la.gov (318) 649-0977
Sen. Dale M. Erdey (R), Vice-Chair, Senate Revenue & Fiscal Affairs Committee, erdeyd@legis.la.gov (225) 686-2881
The current state budget can be found here.
Louisiana is required to pass a "balanced budget." Article VII, Section 10 of the Constitution ratified in 1974 states appropriations by the legislature from the State general fund and dedicated funds for any fiscal year shall not exceed the official forecast in effect at the time the appropriations are made. Moreover, the legislature must "establish a procedure to determine if appropriations will exceed the official forecast and an adequate method for adjusting appropriations in order to eliminate a projected deficit." Finally, if a deficit exists at the end of the fiscal year, the legislature has until the end of the next fiscal year to eliminate the deficit. Accordingly, law forbids the carrying over of a deficit from one year to the next.
The Louisiana Constitution limits appropriations to the appropriations limit from the previous year, adjusted for inflation and the change in population. This is commonly called "budgeting for fiscal discipline," and is a way to keep the growth of appropriations from outpacing the growth in revenues from year to year.
Despite these limits and the Constitution's requirement that legislature should eliminate deficits, the Budgetary Comparison Schedules reported budget deficits (negative net transactions) for each of the three years studied.
The major governmental funds are the General Fund, the Bond Security and Redemption Fund, and the Louisiana Education Quality Trust Fund. The non-major governmental funds are also known as special revenue funds. All of the major funds are budgeted including some Special Revenue funds (non-major). Therefore, most but not all funds are budgeted. The information necessary for analysis is not all present within Budgetary Comparison Schedules: beginning and ending balances are missing. [from the Institute for Truth in Accounting]
Find the state's bond ratings here.
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State Debt :
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HEADLINES: Louisiana
Louisiana state pension proposal features 'cash-balance' plan, later retirement
Gov. Bobby Jindal rolled out a proposal Wednesday for a massive overhaul of state employee pension systems that would move some new workers to a 401(k)-style plan, increase the retirement age for some existing employees and require increased contributions from some in the existing systems.
Courts & Corrections :
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HEADLINES: Louisiana
House cuts decried as Senate committee looks at $25 billion budget
Round two of the state budget process got underway Monday in Baton Rouge as a Senate committee heard from Jindal administration representatives, statewide elected officials and policy advocates about the effects of budget cuts made last week by the House.
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HEADLINES: Louisiana
Governor Jindal Announces Partnership to Reform Louisiana Criminal Justice System
Louisiana was selected for a new partnership with The Pew Center on the States' Public Safety Performance Project, which will fund research on Louisiana's criminal justice system to develop a set of policies to reform the system and make it more effective and efficient.
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Solutions: Louisiana
Student Based Budgeting Viewed as Logical Extension of Charter School Movement
The idea behind student based budgeting (SBB) is for school dollars to be dispersed on a per-pupil basis and to follow individual students into schools where the principals determine how the money is best spent.
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Solutions: Louisiana
Cajun Care: Medicaid Reform in Louisiana
Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, and Health Secretary Alan Levine, both veterans of Medicaid reform, have developed a plan based on key reforms such as accountability, consumer choice, cost efficiency, marketplace competition, and transparency.
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Solutions: Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, California, Louisiana, Colorado
What Works: Fixing State Budgets
Paper suggesting a variety of ways to fixing state budgets in crisis, including freezing or slowing public employee salary growth, privatizing infrastructure and state operations, eliminating prevailing wage and placing constitutional limits on taxing and spending.
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Louisiana
Gov. Bobby Jindal budget proposal includes privatization, pension overhaul to balance budget
A key element of the budget is Jindal's pension reform plan, which includes provisions to increase the retirement age to 67 for employees younger than 55, require employees to contribute 3 percentage points more of their paychecks to their retirement, enroll new employees in a 401(k)-style plan and merge two of the state's four retirement systems.
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Louisiana
Louisiana state pension proposal features 'cash-balance' plan, later retirement
Gov. Bobby Jindal rolled out a proposal Wednesday for a massive overhaul of state employee pension systems that would move some new workers to a 401(k)-style plan, increase the retirement age for some existing employees and require increased contributions from some in the existing systems.
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Louisiana
Fiscal Watchdog Hammers Louisiana's Finances
The Institute for Truth in Accounting has released a damning "Financial State of the State" report on Louisiana's "antiquated" accounting methods and "precarious" fiscal status.
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BLOG : Michigan, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, North Carolina , Louisiana
Tick Tock Goes the Pension Bomb
Public sector compensation and retirement benefits have made headlines lately for their sheer size and weight in comparison to the private sector. The problem of unfunded liabilities is decades in the making, but the bills are starting to come due this legislative session. Budget leaders are learning that they won't have decades to undo this disaster.
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Louisiana
Emergency aid from Feds keeps critical jobs
The $26 billion federal jobs measure includes $375 million to help Louisiana pay for the growing number of residents on Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. The state also will get nearly $147 million to retain 2,800 education jobs, mostly kindergarten through 12th grade teachers, according to federal Department of Education estimates.
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