STATE SURPLUS & FEDERAL DOLLARS- The state of Louisiana has a $1 billion dollar budget surplus and another billion dollars in remaining American Rescue Plan funds. This news was shared by Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, the top official at the Louisiana Division of Administration, the management arm of the state government and agency responsible for developing the state’s annual budget.
Speaking at the Press Club of Baton Rouge earlier this week, Dardenne said low initial budget forecasts for the recent fiscal year ending June 30 combined with an influx of Pandemic federal aid along with a better-than-expected state economy in fiscal year 2021 is the reason for the surplus.
"Our August and September numbers are very encouraging, we're ahead of schedule based upon the forecast. The revenues are ahead of the forecast," Dardenne said. "We're optimistic about where we'll be in this fiscal year and hope at the end of this fiscal year we'll have an excess just as we did last year in FY'21."
Dardenne said his office will recommend that money be divided evenly between coastal projects, deferred maintenance projects within the state – primarily on university campuses – and the Department of Transportation and Development to go to Louisiana’s backlog on fixing roads and bridges.
However State Legislators will decide how to spend the surplus during next year’s regular legislative session which is scheduled to convene March 14, 2022.
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