Louisiana Budget Problems

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When are we the people of Louisiana going to stop electing legislatures that can't balance a budget. Also i need a break from Trump talk!

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"The Louisiana Legislature is all fricked up, but that guy from my district he is A OK"

Until wasteful spending is curbed the budget will never be balanced. There is a state run hospital around Hammond that just had 2mil worth of A/C units bought for it. They still haven't been installed and the hospital is in the process of being shut down/patients are moved out, just one example.

This is a good read, Louisiana's budget is tied in knots by dedicated money: Editorial

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This is how knotted up Louisiana's budget is: Roughly $24.5 billion of the total $29.7 billion budget proposed by Gov. John Bel Edwards is tied to specific programs and expenses, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.

Either it is federal money that can only be used as Congress or the executive branch allows. Or it is dedicated by state statute or the Louisiana Constitution to certain services.

Even the $9.5 billion general fund, which is the most flexible pot of money in the budget process, has strings attached. Lawmakers are required to spend about $4.3 billion on K-12 education, elections, debt payments and other mandated costs, the AP said. That leaves a little more than $5 billion for legislators to divide up.

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They're more concerned with statues than budgets.

Even Mr. Chocolate City left the statues alone.

I find the biggest problem is with the "if you don't use your budget it gets cut". We would always have state agencies buying ridiculous stuff or years supply of bs just to cover their budgets expenditure instead of the state letting those agencies save or invest the extra money for future projects or preventative maintainence. Now there is crumbling infrastructure but no worries because they have a 10 year supply of booster pumps.

My boss always tells the story when a state run agency asks if the cost is going up, it's not a question, they are telling you to increase cost or their budget stays the same.