The Revenue Estimating Conference has recognized an additional 802-million dollars in better-than-expected-tax revenues. 454-million dollars of that money is available for legislators to spend over the next 14 months. Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne says the governor is asking legislators to put some of that cash towards a new Mississippi River Bridge in Baton Rouge.
“What we are going to recommend is that even though that is recurring money that would be available next year as well, we think that should be on one-time expenditures like we’ve been advocating 500-million dollars for the bridge in Baton Rouge,” said Jay Dardenne.
Lawmakers have been hesitant to allocate 500-million dollars for a new bridge when a placement for the bridge has yet to be finalized.
Dardenne says some of that money should also go toward a new I-10 bridge in Lake Charles and completing I-49 south to New Orleans.
And the governor believes there’s enough money to give teachers a $2,000 pay raise. Legislators seem to be on board with a $1,500 raise for teachers.
Dardenne says he hopes lawmakers will give the administration’s proposal serious consideration before they finalize the state budget for the fiscal year that starts in July.
“It doesn’t grow the budget for next year and it lets us make these significant one-time investments in infrastructure that are so important that we want to capitalize on right now when matching federal dollars are available,” said Dardenne.
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