BATON ROUGE –
Governor Bobby Jindal released the administration’s Executive Budget
for the upcoming fiscal year and outlined a pathway to protect higher
education funding. Inside the Executive Budget, there are proposals to
mitigate the impact to higher education institutions, and the
Governor’s Commissioner of Administration also outlined options outside
of the budget for the Legislature’s consideration to further reduce the
impact to colleges and universities.
The
Commissioner of Administration presented proposals outside of the
budget because Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) guidelines limit the
revenue sources that can be included in the Executive Budget.
The
Executive Budget reduces non-recurring dollars, makes reductions to all
state agencies, and continues the administration’s commitment to
growing Louisiana’s economy by maintaining investments in
infrastructure, fully funding the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) for
K-12 schools, and fully funding scholarship programs in both higher
education and K-12 classrooms.
In addition to
recurring reductions and continued streamlining efforts, the Executive
Budget includes a $526 million reduction in tax credit expenditures by
limiting certain refundable credits to an individual or business’s
actual tax liability. This change does not increase the current tax
obligation of any Louisiana taxpayer, and reduces the possibility of
the state refunding taxes that were never collected.
Governor
Jindal said, “In working with the Legislature over the last seven
years, we have enacted balanced budgets that have fostered an economic
climate that has enabled us to announce economic development projects
that will result in more than 91,000 new jobs and $62 billion in new
capital investments. Because of this work, we have also reversed a
25-year trend of migration out of the state to become a destination for
people seeking stable, high quality jobs. In the last few years our
state has had more people, more jobs, higher incomes, higher Gross
Domestic Product and more exports than ever before.
“We
fostered this climate by choosing to reduce taxes and cut government
spending rather than raise taxes and grow government. In fact,
including the reductions in this budget, we will have reduced the
state’s budget by nearly $10 billion since 2008. We have also reduced
the footprint of government by reducing the number of state government
employees by nearly 34 percent.
“We have more
work to do. This Executive Budget continues the transformation of state
government by prioritizing healthcare and higher education through the
transformation of certain refundable tax credits.”
The
FY 16 Executive Budget proposes total funding of $24.6 billion, a
decrease of $1.2 billion, or 4.7 percent, compared to the FY 15
operating budget of $25.8 billion. Since 2008, the total budget has
been reduced by nearly $10 billion. This year’s proposal employs a
variety of strategies to balance the budget:
• Department-by-department strategic reductions to the existing
operating budget: approximately $415 million
•
Recurring savings from mid-year plan and GEMS efficiencies from FY15
and FY16 that has reduced the need for revenue within state agencies:
approximately $180 million
• Reduction in expenses on certain refundable tax credits: $526
million
•
Requiring agencies to absorb certain increases, including state
employee performance adjustments, inflationary costs, and the growth of
some programs: approximately $160 million
• Utilizing surplus
dollars and other non-recurring sources of income for approximately
$300 million. This budget has reduced the amount of funding that will
require another source in the future by nearly 70 percent.
With
the proposed elimination of 727 additional positions in the upcoming
fiscal year, Louisiana will have the smallest number of state
government employees in 25 years. Based on figures from the Department
of State Civil Service, between December 31, 2007 and December 31, 2014:
•
The total “head count” of all employees in the executive branch of
state government has decreased from 100,677 to 70,263, a reduction of
30,414, or 30.2 percent.
• In terms of full-time employees (or FTEs), the total has fallen
from 93,554 to 62,384, a reduction of 31,170, or 33.3 percent.
•
As a result of the reduction in the number of state employees, the
overall state payroll has been reduced by a total of more than $828
million – from $4.154 billion to $3.326 billion.
K-12 Funding
The
Executive Budget will increase state aid to local K-12 schools through
the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) to its highest level yet to
provide funding for 6,284 more students.
In the FY16 proposal, the total funding for the MFP will be
$3,628,258,948, which is more than 16 percent higher than in 2008.
Health Care
The
Executive Budget includes no Medicaid provider rate reductions;
protects current funding levels for public-private partnership
hospitals and clinics; and protects individuals receiving home and
community-based waiver services, ensuring no cuts to those currently
receiving services.
Higher Education
The
Executive Budget includes $30 million in funding provided for the
Workforce and Innovation for a Stronger Economy (WISE) initiative.
The
next fiscal year's budget will include $34.3 million in additional
funds to fully fund TOPS. The projected number of TOPS recipients for
FY 2015-2016 is 55,278 with a total funding of $284.3 million.
This
budget proposal also includes an investment of $185,000 for the
Louisiana Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) at the
University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Since its inception, PTAC has
helped Louisiana small businesses obtain $4.5 billion in contracts,
creating 19,000 new direct jobs and generating more than $100 million
in tax revenue within the state.
###
Quite a bit of controversy over the
Governor's budget proposal...
Louisiana
Democratic Party
February 27, 2015
LDP Statement on Gov. Jindal’s Budget Proposal
Baton Rouge, LA – Louisiana
Democratic Party Executive Director Stephen Handwerk released the
following statement on the governor’s state budget proposal for the
2015-2016 fiscal year:
“There is still much to be desired in Gov. Jindal’s budget. The
reductions of $567 million
in higher education funding saddle our college students and their
families with an exorbitant tab. Louisianians also cannot afford a $235 million
cut from state health services at a time when our hospitals are
struggling to serve their communities. It is clear that Gov. Jindal’s
presidential ambitions are preventing state agencies from serving their
fundamental purpose. We hope that the coming legislative session will
help him get back to the basics.”
###
Louisiana
Democratic
Party
March 19, 2015
Louisiana Will Lose Presidential Primary Under Gov.
Jindal’s Budget
Sec. Schedler Says Current
Budget Plan Does Not Fund Primary or Voter Outreach
Baton Rouge, La- Secretary
of
State
Tom
Schedler
testified
in
front
of
the
state
House Appropriations Committee on
Wednesday that Gov. Jindal’s current budget does not provide the funds
to hold next year’s presidential primary, and he will be forced to
eliminate his office’s voter outreach program as
well. Especially
troubling is that this announcement comes on the heels of the 50th Anniversary
of
“Bloody
Sunday”
and
the
historic
March
in
Selma.
“This is an absolute outrage and a
complete abdication of core
responsibilities of the state government,” said Louisiana Democratic
Party Chair Karen Carter Peterson. “Reasonable people can have robust
conversations about the role and size of government – but surely we
should all be able to agree that one role of government is to oversee
fair and impartial elections. Eliminating Louisiana’s voice
in the
choice of our next president is unacceptable.”
Given the timing and recent polls,
Peterson went on to question the
reason for this drastic position taken by the Governor. “One must
ask
the question – is he doing this because he knows he couldn’t win in his
own state? How much more will Louisiana have to sacrifice at the
altar
of Bobby Jindal’s presidential ambitions?”
Jindal garnered a mere two
percent support from the most recent Iowa presidential primary
poll, and a Republican
poll has shown Jindal with a 27 percent approval rating in
Louisiana.
###
Vitter
for Governor
March 31, 2015
Vitter
Announces Strong Opposition To Jindal Inventory Tax Proposal, Outlines
Alternative Approach
BATON
ROUGE,
LA –
As he participated in two gubernatorial forums today before business
groups, David Vitter announced his strong opposition to Governor
Jindal's inventory tax proposal, contained in the governor's recently
submitted budget.
Under
the
Jindal proposal, the refundable portion of the inventory tax credit
would be repealed. This would be a huge tax increase to thousands
of employers.
Vitter
also
outlined his very different approach to the inventory tax.
This approach would involve completely repealing the tax, offering
local government alternative revenue from the state instead, and
thereby preventing the liability to the state from growing every year
without limit.
Vitter's
full
statement follows:
“I
really
think the Governor's proposal to repeal the refundable portion
of the inventory tax credit is a horrible idea. It would
represent a huge tax increase on thousands of employers. And it's
an absolute killer of jobs and growth.
“That's
why
any inventory tax is a huge negative in rankings of state business
climates. And why so much effort was put into effectively getting rid
of the inventory tax on businesses several years ago.
“But
just
because some Washington political groups have given Governor
Jindal permission to repeal refundable tax credits without calling that
a tax increase, the governor has proposed repealing virtually all of
these, whether it makes sense in each case or not. And just because
those same groups won't give him permission to repeal non-refundable
credits and the like, the Governor is protecting virtually all of
those, whether it makes sense in each case or not.
“Instead
of
this approach, I would apply an objective cost-benefit analysis to
all state tax credits, exemptions, and deductions. I'd propose
getting rid of those that don't pass that test and keeping those that
do.
“Now
we
do need to reform the inventory tax system, but not by bringing back
a big part of that burden on businesses. What's broken with our present
system is that local assessors, with some input from the businesses
involved, value inventory and thus determine tax liability. But
it's the state, which has no say in that process, that has to pay the
bill. And that bill keeps going up and up over time.
“Instead,
I
would propose getting rid of all aspects of the inventory tax and
replacing it with another revenue stream from the state to local
government. This would be far simpler for businesses. It would
guarantee local government that revenue they have traditionally
received and depended on. And it would protect the state from a
bill that grows significantly every year without end.”
###
