The Revenue Estimating Conference has officially recognized Louisiana has an additional $840 million dollars in revenues for the current budget year and an additional $765 million for next year’s budget. Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne described the state’s fiscal situation as stable and bright.
“That’s a product of stable budget and an economy that is performing better than we thought and the fact that our forecast that had been in place was very-very conservative because of all the uncertainties surrounding the pandemic,” Dardenne said.
Now that the REC has recognized an official forecast for next year, Dardenne can begin to craft a proposed budget to present to lawmakers ahead of the regular legislative session. He said having an extra $765-million to spend will allow the state to fund major priorities.
“It’s an awful lot of significant money and it doesn’t even include the $1.4 billion in federal money that is yet to be spent from the American Rescue plan that Congress passed last year,” Dardenne said.
The state will also have another $450-million in surplus money to spend from the last fiscal year. Legislative leaders are expected to propose the money goes towards infrastructure projects and Dardenne said the governor has his own priorities.
“We’ll recommend it be used for coastal projects and differed maintenance on college campuses primarily,” Dardenne said.
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