Governor John Bel Edwards’s proposal to allocate 500-million dollars towards building a new I-10 Mississippi River Bridge in Baton Rouge is facing some pushback from legislative leaders. Senate President Page Cortez says that’s a lot of money to set aside when environmental impact studies have not been done or a corridor for a new bridge has yet to be selected.
“It’s hard to park a half-billion dollars of excess money in a fund that could sit in there for 15 to 20 years before it gets spent,” said Cortez.
During his State of the State address, Edwards says now is the time to make a major investment towards a significant traffic problem for the Baton Rouge area.
Speaker Pro Tem and Houma Representative Tanner Magee says he supports funding for a new Mississippi River Bridge, but he would like to see a plan to secure the rest of the funding so the project is more shovel-ready.
“Our main question is going to be is that we are not against the spending, but we like to see a more detailed plan articulated by the administration on how we are going to make that bridge a reality and we are just not putting that money on the sidelines,” said Magee.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Sam Jenkins of Shreveport is also hesitant about setting 500-million dollars aside for a new Mississippi River Bridge. He’s also concerned about using 550-million dollars in federal pandemic aid to help replenish the Unemployment insurance trust fund
“We are hoping there could be room with those dollars to see if it some of it can go in a different direction,’ said Jenkins.
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