Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's (R) address to open the legislative session April 28 was short on specifics, but he made it clear his biggest concern is dealing with a looming budget shortfall.
“This will be a session dominated by debates about the budget and how to do more with less, but at the same time, we must continue to move our state forward,” the governor told the split Legislature in an uncharacteristically short address, at less than 20 minutes.
Lawmakers have $1.3 billion less to spend than they did last year, and Jindal is pushing to cover that gap with large cuts to higher education and health care. “We can’t tax, borrow, spend our way out of this,” he said.
The governor outlined few details and spoke broadly about the need to work together.
He was also vague when describing some of his priorities: changing the civil service system to reward employees more on performance than length of service; changing how the state pays for K-12 and higher education; and streamlining government and consolidating some agencies.
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