BATON ROUGE – Governor Bobby Jindal released his Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2015-2016, and Kristy Nichols, Commissioner of Administration, presented the $24.6 billion state budget proposal to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget today.
In order to reconcile the state’s $1.6 billion budget shortfall, the proposal:
• Reduces the total budget by 4.7%
• Converts some refundable tax credits to non-refundable – reduces expenses by $526 million without raising taxes – including inventory tax credit, wind and solar, research and development, ad valorem for offshore vessels, musical and theatrical, telephone company property tax credit, ad valorem for certain natural gas, vehicle conversion to alternative fuel, sugarcane trailer conversion, milk producers, Angel investors and historic residential rehab
• Eliminates 727 government employee jobs – resulting in the smallest number of state government employees in 25 years
• Reduces the Executive Department budget by $390 million
• Reduces the Department of Public Safety budget by $157.5 million
• Reduces the Children and Family Services budget by $101.3 million
• Reduces the Wildlife and Fisheries budget by $44.3 million
• Reduces the Department of Corrections budget by $25.8 million
• Maintains infrastructure funding
• Protects K-12 classroom funding
• Fully funds TOPS
• Invests in new cadet classes at DPS and LWF
• Reduces one-time money by 70%
• Does not call for Medicaid rate reductions or cuts to medical schools, Bayou Health plans and funding levels for LSU public-private partnership hospitals and clinics
• Does not raise taxes
According to the Budget, the $376.2 million loss of oil revenue accounts for nearly one-third of the shortfall once growth, inflation and non-recurring expenses are removed.
