KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana |Louisiana Spending

Louisiana Spending

Governor Kathleen Blanco said today she expects Louisiana to have another 800 (m) million dollars to spend this year. That's money she wants plowed into child tax credits for families, a quickening of business tax breaks, a slew of pay raises and insurance relief.

That new cash -- which must formally be recognized by a state estimating panel before it can be spent - would be on top of 827 (m) million dollars in surplus dollars for the budget year that ended June 30th. Blanco wants those one-time surplus dollars used for retirement debt, road improvements and building repairs.

With a hefty one-point-six (b) billion dollars to spend and an election year approaching, Blanco is urging a series of proposals likely to be popular with the general public. Both pools of money will be the subject of discussion next month in a 10-day special session that Blanco is calling to begin December eighth.

Lawmakers pressed for a special session to help cover the debts of the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the state-run insurance company of last resort for people who can't buy insurance in the private market. Citizens borrowed one (b) billion dollars to cover claims after hurricanes Katrina and Rita and is repaying that debt by passing on fees to private insurers, who in turn are charging their customers rate hikes to cover those fees.

Blanco proposes using some of the state's unspent dollars to pay down Citizens' debt and give property owners rebate checks for the fee hikes they already paid to cover Citizens' claims costs. The governor said she's scrapped a previous plan she floated to use the state's tobacco settlement dollars to bail out Citizens -- an idea that proved unpopular with legislators.

Blanco says insurance rebate checks should be in hand by January first.