The Baton Rouge Advocate reports the governor signed off Wednesday afternoon on a recommendation from state Treasurer John Kennedy to forgo plans to incrementally sell $325 million in rural road improvement bonds, and instead issue all the bonds at once.
It seems Gov. Bobby Jindal and state Treasurer John Kennedy can agree on something.
According to this morning's Baton Rouge Advocate, the Jindal administration, under the guise that interest rates will continue rising, took a gamble late Wednesday and signed off on a recommendation made two months ago by Kennedy - a vocal critic of the governor's fiscal policies - to sell $325 million in rural road bonds all at once.
Jindal's original plan, which was approved during this year's Legislative Session, involved spacing out the bond issuance over the next three years, selling $100 million a year for the first two years and $125 million in the third year.
State Department of Transportation and Development secretary Sherri LeBas tells the Advocate "it is better, more financially sound, to go ahead and bond all of the money out up front."
"I'm glad that DOTD has finally come to that perspective." Kennedy tells the Advocate following Wednesday's decision. "If rates don't move for three years, then we will have made the wrong decision. But I think this time three years from now interest rates will be much higher."
The $325 million in bonds will be used to improve the state's rural roadways that are not eligible for federal funding. Though nothing is currently set in stone, rural roads in every parish but Orleans could benefit from the bond issue.
Click here to read the full article in this morning's Advocate.