Lawmakers Back Most Of Jindal's Plan
by Mike Hasten - Shreveport Times (excerpt)

BATON ROUGE — State lawmakers back most of Gov. Bobby Jindal's plan for the regular session that kicked off Monday, but there's at least one idea that could run into problems.

In his opening speech, Jindal complimented lawmakers on their work in two special sessions but said "We cannot rest until we have created a new Louisiana where every young person has an opportunity to get a high-paying job, start a great career, get a quality education, access the best health care and raise a family in a safe community."

He laid out his plans to upgrade technical training to meet the needs of industries, improve discipline in schools, grant teacher pay raises improve mental health care and impose stricter penalties and restrictions on child molesters.

The part that troubles several lawmakers, though, wasn't mentioned in the governor's speech.

Jindal's proposed budget incorporates excess revenues in the current budget year and sets aside $300 million in an economic development fund to be used to attract large industries to "mega sites" — one of which is in northeast Louisiana.

Several lawmakers, including Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton, and Sen. Mike Michot, R-Lafayette, question whether that is the best use for the funds. The fund already has $140 million that was appropriated under Blanco and never used. Adley and Michot said they believe the money would be better used taking care of some of the backlog of construction projects.

The current capital outlay bill has $1.4 billion in projects awaiting approval, Adley said, and "a large chunk" of the surplus should be used to address the problem. How to use the money "will be one of the biggest fights," he said.