Louisiana will borrow $320 million next year for state construction projects, far less than needed to fulfill the billions of dollars in requests from lawmakers and state agencies, the governor’s top budget adviser said.
The construction budget bill submitted by Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration already includes $10 million more in projects vying for those available dollars than there is money to spend – and that’s before lawmakers add new projects into the bill.
Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis said that allows wiggle room in case some projects can’t move as quickly as expected or projects get other sources of funding and don’t need as much state cash upfront. For example, the planned New Orleans public hospital could soon get expected federal funding and need less money from the state in the upcoming year, she said.
Davis outlined the details of the construction budget bill – known as the “capital outlay” bill – to lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee, which works on the bill each year.
Louisiana has a cap on annual borrowing that will limit spending on construction projects to an estimated $320 million in the upcoming 2010-11 year that begins July 1 – money that will cover ongoing projects, items given lines of credit in previous years and new projects.
The state is hovering near its debt ceiling, but Davis said the capital outlay bill will keep the state-supported debt load within legal limits.
“We will still be under our net state tax supported debt limit,” she said, pausing before she added, “But barely.”
Requests far exceed the dollars available every year. Davis said $2 billion in project requests were submitted by state agencies, local organizations and lawmakers for the discretionary funding.
Among the projects Jindal included for the $320 million in new construction spending is $15 million for widening of Interstate 12, $7.3 million for construction of Interstate 49 North to Arkansas and $65 million as part of a bid to woo steelmaker Nucor Corp. to build its new pig iron plant in southeast Louisiana.
The multiyear construction budget submitted by the Jindal administration totals nearly $4.5 billion.
The bill includes mostly projects approved in past years by lawmakers that already are in line for borrowing dollars and projects that have direct streams of cash funding, like road and bridge repairs. Much of the bill outlines spending of federal money and state fees or taxes dedicated to specific projects like road improvements.
About $620 million of the projects included in the bill are to be funded in later years.
House Bill 2 can be found at www.legis.state.la.us
Topics Legislation Louisiana Construction
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