Louisiana REALTORS 2008 Legislative Recap

SUMMARY OF LOUISIANA'S BUDGET ISSUES:

The legislature passed a $29.9 billion budget that continues nearly all state services next year, expands health care and education programs, and boosts state spending by $1 billion. The bill will finance state government operations and services in the fiscal year beginning July 1 and will send millions of dollars to lawmakers' local districts for pet projects. Most of Gov. Bobby Jindal's budget recommendations were kept in tact.

Although the budget is an overall decrease from this year's spending, the shrinkage is tied to the loss of one-time federal recovery aid after the hurricanes. Meanwhile, state spending is slated to grow by $1 billion in the proposal — an increase of more than 12 percent from this year, amid record state revenues spurred by high oil prices.

The spending plan will increase funding for the state's Medicaid program for the poor, elderly and disabled; start a new literacy program for public school children; and keep public colleges funded at the level of peer institutions in the South.

Public school teachers will get an across-the-board $1,019 pay raise, and school support workers, like bus drivers and teachers' aides, will get a one-time $1,000 bonus. A new $10 million Jindal-backed voucher program for New Orleans, using taxpayer dollars to send a group of poor students to private schools, also will be funded. More than 700 vacant state government jobs will be cut.

An additional $358 million spending plan for the current budget year ending June 30, with funding slated for the LSU-run public hospitals; new professorships at universities; economic development programs; legal judgments against the state; and the state's contractual obligations to the New Orleans Saints and Hornets. It also includes millions for lawmakers' pet projects.

A bill to sock away $643 million in excess cash from this year into an array of funds, to be spent in later years. Nearly half the money, $307 million, will be stored in an economic development fund designed to attract so-called "mega-projects" — big-ticket manufacturing facilities sought by the state. Any spending from the funds will have to be OK'd by lawmakers.

A $4.9 billion state construction budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year. Many of the project don't be funded for several years. Half the construction budget includes road projects and other items that have direct cash lines of funding, but the other half includes projects that will be funded through state borrowing.

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For more information or questions please feel free to contact Norman Morris at 1-800 266-8538 or norman@larealtors.org or you can go to www.legis.state.la.us.

Local Boards can also contact Norman if interested in having their brokers or general membership addressed at meetings on the results of the 2007 Legislative Session.

Go back to State Legislative Page.