PLAYING CHICKEN
Times-Picayune (excerpt)

A pair of New Orleans lawmakers chided Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration last week for announcing a $50 million state commitment to a northern Louisiana chicken processing operation without first consulting lawmakers.

House Speaker Pro Tem Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, noted that the agreement to have state taxpayers subsidize the sale of the Pilgrim's Pride plant in Farmerville won't be complete until the Legislature signs off on the money and agrees to change a state law governing how a $415 million economic-development fund can be used.

"How do you offer something you don't have and is not in compliance with existing law?" Peterson asked Tim Barfield, the head of the Louisiana Workforce Commission, as he testified to a legislative committee.

Sen. Ed Murray, D-New Orleans, questioned the structure of the deal, which calls for taxpayers to pick up half the $80 million sale of the plant from Pilgrim's Pride to California-based Foster Farms. Under that arrangement, the state would end up paying money to a company that is leaving the state, Murray said.

Both the state and Foster Farms also would be paying $10 million each in capital improvements. The state would have no equity position in the plant, Department of Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret said.