KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana |Lawmakers agree to budget compromise
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Associated Press - June 25, 2009 7:24 PM ET
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana lawmakers have wrapped up their work in the nine-week legislative session. Before they adjourned, they hammered out a final compromise on the $28 billion budget that lessens planned cuts to colleges and health services.
Both the House and Senate agreed to the budget plans in the final hour of the session that ended Thursday.
The 55-page deal involves steering $176 million more in state dollars to colleges, health care, agriculture services and tourism programs, to stave off some cuts. Also negotiated was $34 million for lawmakers' pet projects.
The plans use money from the state's "rainy day" fund, an expired insurance grant fund, health care trust funds and incentive money returned by The Shaw Group to help higher education. The health care dollars grow with federal matching cash.
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