re: Louisiana has a current budget of $29 billion. The state is not poor.

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I can't wait to watch the saints destroy the cowboys next year.

Edit: actually this year, next season.

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You are right, I have no idea why I associate football with years but I bet a lot of folks do

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List of State Budgets

The state just isn't spending it right. There is NO excuse for underfunded schools/universities, poor roads, etc.

As a comparison, Georgia - with double the population of Louisiana has a state budget of $23 billion. UGA and Georgia Tech aren't hurting for money and Georgia has a much better infrastructure.

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And herein lies the biggest problem in Louisiana - ignorance. This post is factually incorrect, yet this is how so many discussions start, even amongst actual politicians here in our state. Solving our problems will require people to learn and understand the facts before opining.

I don't mean to blast you OP. We just must demand higher standards of ourselves and leaders if we are to ever shed the shithole status.

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state budget of $23 billion

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$22 billion goes to crooked politicians and corruption

Oh they broke

Your conservative Gov. Jindal wrecked that state with his trickle down voodoo economics. What did you expect? Brownback did the same thing in Kansas, and cut education and other vital services to pay for his tax cut for the rich. The same thing is going to eventually happen nationally due to the recently passed tax cut.

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Louisiana has a current budget of $29 billion

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And Alabama coming in at 30B. Always gotta one up the red headed step child :/

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and yet, you offer not a single fact to contradict his alleged ignorance.

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It's been said many times in this thread the budget numbers must be considered with and without federal monies. Furthermore, how each state handles certain priorities at the local level may differ greatly.

What the OP stated in his first post is not entirely different from what many politicians in LA say - and they are elected and paid to know the difference. Our state is broken due to ignorance.

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Georgia has the lottery which is mandated to donate a singifganr amount to education

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So does Louisiana.

LINK - Louisiana Lottery

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The Lottery statute mandates that at least 35 percent of all Lottery revenue be transferred to the state treasury. Effective July 1, 2004, the Louisiana constitution provides that Lottery proceeds be earmarked for the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP), which funds K-12 public education in Louisiana. In addition, the first $500,000 in annual Lottery proceeds is earmarked for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals-Office of Behavioral Health to fund problem gambling programs.

As of fiscal year 2017, the Lottery has transferred more than $3.4 billion to the state treasury. More than $159 million was transferred from sales in fiscal year 2017. The Louisiana Lottery ranks second among other U.S. jurisdictional lotteries in percentage of revenue transferred to its government.

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Tax Policy Center

Per capita tax collections

LA - $3951 - #34
AL - $3144 - #51
TX - $4126 - #29
GA - $3520 - #44

LA collects more taxes per capita than GA and also has higher revenue from other sources per capita than GA

LA - $5806 - #40
AL - $5591 - #44
TX - $5991 - #34
GA - $5148 - #49

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Louisiana has a state budget of $23 billion.

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The La. budget debate would be much simpler if you deleted federal revenues which are dedicated to certain Federal mandates and just looked at what state revenues are paying for.

Reality is the state has just over 9 billion dollars in revenue which go to the general fund. La. is not a rich state.

Now La. acts like a rich state in many ways. We dole out money to Hollywood, we set very high stds. for nursing homes which is costly to the state, we have TOPS, and we have a plethora of four year colleges. We can't afford all this.

Certainly our taxes are high relative to what we receive, but talking about a 23 Billion dollar budget as if we can spend 23 Billion as we wish is not factual. The Feds tell us how to spend most of that money.

ETA the 23 Billion figure is not the current budget, it's the preceding one. The current budget is around 27 Billion.
LINK
Revenues are broken down as follows(rounded off)

Feds 12.1 Billion
8.9 Billion State Gen Funds
2.8 Dedicated Funds
2.4 Self Gen. Funds
.98 B interagency transfers

Yes, Louisiana collects more tax at the state level per calital while collecting almost nothing at the local level. Georgia taxes far more at the local and much less at the state level. All your data is showing is that Louisiana’s taxing and funding is more centralized at the State level than Georgia.