Louisiana state budget (2009-2010)

Note: This article was last updated in 2010. Click here for more recent information on state budgets and finances.

Approaching the end of the fiscal year, the state faced a $319 million deficit in its FY 2010 budget due to declining tax collections. Gov. Bobby Jindal proposed cutting $65 million from state agencies and public colleges and tapping into a mix of one-time dollars and savings to plug the remaining gap. Under Gov. Jindal's plan, the state's rainy day fund, officially known as the Budget Stabilization Fund, would be untouched. The rest of the budget fix would come from a variety of state funds and one-time sources, such as $17 million the state would get from a legal settlement with Eli Lilly & Co. and $13 million in lower-than-expected debt service from bond sales. Gov. Jindal said that, with 11 weeks left in the fiscal year, there was little time to make major spending cuts without crippling state services.

The state Senate voted unanimously in favor of Senate Concurrent Resolution 42, thus authorizing use of $198 million from the state's rainy day fund to help patch a mid-year budget deficit. Senate President Joel Chaisson II authored the resolution, which put him at odds with Gov. Jindal's budget approach. The resolution allowed the removal of $172 million from the rainy day fund.

The Senate sought to use the rainy day account to mitigate the state's budget problems last year and the House agreed to taking $86 million from the fund, leaving $198 million in the fund that could be used before July 1, 2010. A constitutional provision permits use of one-third of the rainy day fund in years when state revenues fall below the revenues of the previous year.

Prior state budgets

On May 21, 2009, the Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) made minor adjustments to the February REC adopted forecast. The estimate of available general fund revenue in FY 2009/10 was revised down by $30 million to $8,059.9, which was down 13.6% from the prior year forecast. A continuation of the state's tax breaks in conjunction with negative state employment growth accounted for the declining revenue. The estimated general fund (direct) balance on June 30, 2010 (the last day of the fiscal year) was $2,146,705.

Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Louisiana State Legislature created in July 2009 the Commission on Streamlining Government to offer cost-cutting ideas amid years of projected state budget shortfalls. Jindal asked for $802 million in budget cut recommendations. The panel was required to pull together its report by December 15. The new law required the commission to submit an annual report before January 1 each year. The commission was scheduled to go out of business when the next governor and legislature took office January 12, 2012, but lawmakers could extend it if they chose.

2008-2009 budget crisis

See also: Louisiana state budget (2008-2009)

Budget background

See also: Louisiana state budget and finances

The Louisiana state budget is prepared every year by October 1 and includes a detailed financial plan for the fiscal year. Prior to the adoption of the budget a series of public hearings are held in both the House of Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance Committee. A majority vote is required to pass the state budget.The Louisiana fiscal year begins in July.

Pursuant to law (Louisiana Revised Statute 39:56), the Division of Administration, Office of Planning and Budget prepares the official state budget.

Budget figures

Two-year state budget comparison

'	FY 2009 budgeted	FY 2010 appropriated	Percent change
General fund	$9,474.7	$9,011.2	-4.89%
State total	$14,667.1	$14,188.8	-3.26%
Federal	$14,944.0	$14,798.0	-0.98%
Grand total	$29,611.1	$28,986.8	-2.11%

Accounting principles

See also: Louisiana government accounting principles

The state auditing authority is the Office of the Legislative Auditor, created in 1973. The legislature also created a legislative oversight committee for the auditor. The Legislative Audit Advisory Council serves as an audit resolution council and provides general oversight for operations of the legislative auditor. As of 2009, Steve J. Theriot had been Legislative Auditor since 2004. Louisiana's audit reports are published online.

The Institute for Truth in Accounting (IFTA) rated Louisiana “tardy” in filing the state’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), the annual report of state and local governmental entities. IFTA rated 22 states timely, 22 states tardy, and six states as worst. IFTA did not consider Louisiana's CAFRs, and those of the other states, to be accurate representations of the state’s financial condition because the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) basis did not include significant liabilities for the pension plans and for other post employment benefits, such as health care. Louisiana's CAFRs are published online by the Louisiana Division of Administration. As of 2009, Angele Davis had been Commissioner of the Louisiana Division of Administration since December 2007.

Transparency

On November 12, 2008, Louisiana announced the launch of its spending transparency database, LA Trac.

The database resulted from an executive order by Governor Jindal and the authorization of the legislature. As the Commissioner of Administration, Angele Davis, said, “This is an important event, an extraordinary step forward, and a historic reform initiative for Louisiana and its pursuit of better, more accountable government …Today we begin to empower four million citizen auditors to monitor what the state spends and to judge whether it’s wise, necessary, and achieving results.”

LaTrac contains all executive branch spending for the state of Louisiana, including higher education. It also has a vendor search and a link to the performance of state agencies (through LaPAS). LA Trac also contains LA eGrants, which lists all grants that are available through the state.

Also, the Taxpayers Union of Louisiana website was formed in the spring of 2008 aided by a "Standing Together" grant from the National Taxpayers Union. Founder John Roberts stated his belief that transparency in Louisiana's budget was a boon to the taxpayer and would help curtail much of the unnecessary spending so many in Louisiana had become accustomed to.

Government tools

See also: Evaluation of Louisiana state website

The following table is helpful in evaluating the level of transparency provided by a state spending and transparency database:

Criteria for evaluating spending databases

State database	Searchability	Grants	Contracts	Line item expenditures	Dept./agency budgets	Public employee salary
LaTrac	Y	N		Y	Y	N

LaPAS

The Louisiana Performance Accountability System (LaPAS) is an electronic database that tracks performance standards, interim quarterly performance targets, and actual performance information for Louisiana's executive branch departments and agencies.

Departments and agencies are required to submit quarterly Performance Progress Reports to LaPAS via a web-based application. The Office of Planning and Budget (OPB) in the Division of Administration, as the official record keeper of performance standards and information, maintains LaPAS.

Economic stimulus transparency

• Louisiana would receive approximately $540 million from the federal government under H.R. 1586, a $26 billion plan to give states money for Medicaid and education that the President signed into law on August 10, 2010.

• Louisiana would receive an estimated $2,297,586,422 in federal stimulus funds in 2009.

One Louisiana project was noted in Senator Coburn's and Senator McCain's "Summertime Blues, 100 stimulus projects that give taxpayers the blues" report. The project gave a contractor convicted of public corruption $211,468 in stimulus funds to build a sidewalk in Monroe, LA, despite the fact that he was not the lowest bidder.

Error in ARRP

According to Recovery.gov, federal stimulus funds would go to 884 congressional districts, though there are only 435.

In addition to the inclusion of eight non-existent districts, the state’s 8th Congressional District reportedly grew by more than 300 jobs through the stimulus package. However, the 8th District had not existed since 1990.

Public employee salary information

See also: Louisiana state government salary

Online salary database

The Times-Picayune provides an online database of state employee salaries using data from the Louisiana Office of Civil Service. Users can search by name, job title, employer or salary range. The breakdown of salary ranges as of 2009 is as follows:

Salary	Number of employees
$0 - 49,999	72,834 employees
$50,000 - 99,999	27,834 employees
$100,000 - 199,999	3,021 employees
$200,000 - 299,999	139 employees
$300,000 - 399,999	19 employees
$400,000 - 550,000	4 employees

The average pay of a classified state worker was $39,619, while an unclassified worker (which are generally political appointees) averages $59,246. Gov. Jindal's salary, set by the legislature, was $130,000. Putting this in perspective, the median household income in Louisiana at the time was $39,418.

Salary increases

A 2009 report found that, in the last year, state employees making less than $40,000 a year actually decreased, while those making over $40,000 rose by 4,334. Additionally, employees making over $100,000 were responsible for growing the payroll by $96 million in a year.

Highest salaries

Four out of the top five highest-paid employees worked at LSU. These included:

• John Lombardi, President, LSU System Board of Supervisors - $550,000
• J. Stanley "Skip" Bertman, Athletic Director, LSU - $425,000
• Gary Crowton, Assistant Head Coach, LSU - $400,000
• Michael Martin, Chancellor, LSU, $400,000
• Sally Clausen, Commissioner, Board of Regents - $377,000

See also

• Louisiana government sector lobbying
• Louisiana public pensions
• Louisiana Legislature
• Louisiana Senate
• Louisiana House of Representatives
• Louisiana state budget and finances

External links

• State Budget Solutions, Louisiana
• Louisiana Workforce Commission
• Louisiana Accountability and Transparency website
• Pelican Institute for Public Policy (dead link)
• Taxpayers Union of Louisiana
• Louisiana Office of Planning and Budget
• Louisiana state budget news
• Louisiana government website
• Model transparency legislation from the American Legislative Exchange Council is available at this link.
• Louisiana Department of Civil Service

Additional reading

• Nola.com, Louisiana's growing state payroll strains budget, Feb. 14, 2009