BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana's budget deficit from last year was worsened because $12 million in fund transfers that had been planned to plug holes weren't made.
Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration hasn't released the size of the gap from the fiscal year that ended June 30. Numbers will be unveiled to lawmakers in mid-October.
But the administration has acknowledged Louisiana closed the books in the red, driven partly by higher-than-expected use of tax refunds and credits.
Also apparently a problem: $12 million that was to be "swept" from various funds across state agencies and spent elsewhere never happened.
Treasurer John Kennedy's office says it couldn't move the money because dollars weren't in the funds. Jindal's Division of Administration says Kennedy waited too long to make the transfers, after agencies had depleted the funds.
