Governor Jindal: Budget Surplus for Louisiana Because of Fiscal Responsibility, Growing Economy

Statement

At a legislative hearing today, Division of Administration Commissioner Kristy Nichols announced that Louisiana has a nearly $163 million budget surplus from last fiscal year. Governor Bobby Jindal emphasized the budget surplus is due to fiscal responsibility and a growing private sector economy.

Governor Jindal said, "We have a budget surplus because we have passed responsible budgets that don't spend more money than we take in and because Louisiana's private sector economy is growing. We have more jobs in Louisiana than at any point in our history.

"Nationally, we faced one of the worst economic downturns in history, and in order to ensure that we weathered the recession better than other states, we reined in government spending and worked to improve Louisiana's business climate. We made difficult decisions that are paying off and now our economy is growing. There's still plenty of work to do, but we're moving in the right direction.

"We will work with the Legislature to use this surplus in a fiscally responsible way so we can continue to create jobs and produce more surpluses."

Source