BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Amid years of spending cuts, Secretary of State Tom Schedler has been working to shrink the footprint of state-run museums, returning smaller museums to local community management.
Where the secretary of state once managed 18 museums scattered around Louisiana, Schedler now oversees 14.
Schedler told lawmakers Monday the budget proposal planned from Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration would give him $2.9 million to run museums next year, down from $4.5 million several years ago.
That won't be enough money to run all the museums under his control.
Schedler says he's working to return four or five museums — including military museums in Ruston and Abbeville — to local agencies. He says the governor's budget proposal would give him enough financing to continue managing the rest, like the Old State Capitol.