AP Wire

State construction budget bloated

by Melinda Deslatte, Associated Press

Gov. Bobby Jindal submitted an overloaded construction budget proposal with $258 million more in projects than Louisiana has money to spend and the House Ways and Means Committee loaded up the bill even further Tuesday, adding millions more in road work, drainage and other local projects.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Lawmakers have started advancing Louisiana's multibillion-dollar state construction budget for next year.

But just because projects are in the budget bill doesn't necessarily mean they'll get money in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Gov. Bobby Jindal submitted an overloaded construction budget proposal with $258 million more in projects than Louisiana has money to spend.

The House Ways and Means Committee loaded up the bill even further Tuesday, adding millions more in road work, drainage and other local projects. After committee action, the bill contains $326 million more in construction work proposals than Louisiana can afford.

That would leave the governor to pick and choose which projects get financing next year.

The full House is expected to consider the budget proposal later this week.