Team Jindal exposed Monday, Jul 25 2011
1 7:00 am
Team Jindal exposed
At last Thursday’s State Bond Commission meeting the Jindal Administration requested lines-of-credit for capital projects. The projects receiving the credit lines were determined to be the highest priority by the Jindal Administration and the Lege.
Money will have to be borrowed via the sale of state bonds to fund the lines-of-credit.
State Treasurer John Kennedy, chairman of the commission, questioned some these “brick and mortar” projects for Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
What they said
Among the responses Kennedy got to his questioning of why the state’s taxpayers are funding NGOs were:
Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater, the governor’s top budget aide, said … the projects are lingering remnants of prior governors’ administrations, not new projects backed by the Jindal administration. Baton Rouge Advocate, July 22, 2011 (emphasis mine)
Senator Rob Marionneaux (who is considering running for governor this fall) added: “We’re really flushing these old projects out”…. ibid. (emphasis mine)
The facts
One of the more egregious projects questioned by Kennedy was $140,000 for a new fence in the private Kingwood (sic) Subdivision in eastern New Orleans. (Actually, the name of the subdivision is “Kingswood.”)
Despite the responses above, Governor Kathleen Blanco’s last Capital Outlay Budget (HB 2 of 2007 Regular Session) does not contain any such funding.
The first time the fence appeared in the state’s Capital Outlay Budget was during the 2008 Regular Session. It was added via an amendment in the House Ways and Means Committee.
Thus, the fence was added on Bobby Jindal’s watch. Additionally, since 2008 the fence was elevated from the Priority 2 funding category to Priority 1 by Team Jindal.
Team Jindal has been caught with its butt exposed and is now trying to cover it up.
