Louisiana finds $179 million, no cuts to higher education!

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Hey, look what we found!




Louisiana state government looked under a financial cushion and found about $179 million that will be used to pay a shortfall for the fiscal year that ends in six weeks and to help in efforts to close a massive budget hole for the next fiscal year.

In welcome news after months of finding the state needed to reduce its revenue expectations, which required budget cuts, the panel charged with deciding how much money state government has available to spend on Thursday boosted the state general fund forecast for this fiscal year by $99.4 million and made available $79.3 million for the budget year that begins July 1.

Senate President John Alario, who chairs the four-member Revenue Estimating Conference, said after the meeting: “Finally, some good news.”

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No cuts for Louisiana higher education

Louisiana’s public colleges and universities secured a victory Monday when the House Appropriations Committee approved a budget proposal for next year that would give them the same amount of money they currently receive, thanks to $615 million in new tax revenue approved by the full House on Thursday.

“It’s a good first step,” F. King Alexander, LSU’s president and chancellor, said in an interview Monday. “But it’s only in the second quarter. We just want to be held whole.”

Higher education institutions have been facing a cut of up to 82 percent compared with their current funding of about $740 million.

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