Louisiana's Budget Woes

Governor Bobby Jindal and his administration are trying to address a $1.3 billion short fall in the budget.  Major cuts in spending has been proposed by Jindal to make up for the revenue shortage he and the legislature failed to anticipate.  Governor Jindal inherited a $2 billion surplus from the previous administration.  The reader will remember how Bush inherited budget surpluses from the Clinton administration and then failed to balance one budget in his 8 years in office.  However, the state of Louisiana  is required to balance its budget.

 

Republicans seem to have a problem balancing budgets especially after they inherit surpluses from the previous administration.  If one listens to what Jindal says, the fault lies in fallen oil and gas prices and the condition of the national economy.  Not so says former Republican Governor Buddy Roemer.  As reported in the Times Picayune of May 17, Roemer in a sit down with representative Dan Claitor said, Jindal can not separate himself from the budget shortfall.  Roemer said Jindal was part of the problem and is a result of Jindal's miscalculation in the last budget.  Jindal's spokesman, Kyle Platkin blamed it on the national economy and a decrease in oil and gas revenue.  The usual disclaimer by republicans.  Always passing the buck.

 

The big problem is how and where Jindal wants to cut the budget and spending.  Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu in a letter to the editors dated 5/19 to the Times Picayune pointed out how the $2 billion surplus Jindal and the legislature inherited from the previous administration and then decided to increase spending over $1.3 billion.  Those decisions Landrieu said forced them into a position this year of cutting 87 academic programs at our colleges and universities.  Plus budgets cuts to health care funding across the state.

 

Landrieu also pointed out we should invest our money in education, health care, critical infrastructure and other programs that offer substantial return on taxpayers dollars.  In other words every situation has a priority.  You do not cut the budget programs that produce revenue. 

 

I recall what Bob Woodward, the Washington Post journalist wrote in one of his many books.  He said that in Bill Clinton's first year in office he knew more about the federal budget than the members of congress did even though most of them had been in congress for many years and had to deal with the budget every year.  The republicans were especially astonished by Clinton's knowledge about the federal budget.  That explains why Clinton's fiscal and economical policies reversed the 12 years of deficit spending by the Reagan-Bush years.  It also explains what is going on with the Louisiana budget.  Jindal and the legislature are all over the place because they really don not understand how budgeting works and managing the peoples money. 

 

Mitch Landrieu's letter to the editors was right on target.