Bobby Jindal proposes sale of $47M in property to balance budget

Jindal proposes unloading a half-dozen tracts of state property around south Louisiana to drum up $47 million, money that he's using to help pay for public colleges in his budget proposal for the 2013-14 fiscal year that starts July 1.

|
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal takes questions from members of the media outside the White House in Washington, Feb. 25, following meeting between members of the National Governors Association (NGA) and President Barack Obama.

An art deco landmark in downtown Baton Rouge, a slice of a St. Tammany Parish psychiatric hospital campus and prime property overlooking the Louisiana Capitol need to be sold within the next year to make Gov. Bobby Jindal's budget balance.

Jindal proposes unloading a half-dozen tracts of state property around south Louisiana to drum up $47 million, money that he's using to help pay for public colleges in his budget proposal for the 2013-14 fiscal year that starts July 1.

None of the deals are done, and lawmakers have been reticent about making some of the sales, which need legislative approval before "For Sale" signs can be planted on the sites.

The governor's chief budget analyst, Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols, describes the sales as practical.

"As state government has consolidated and reduced its footprint, it makes sense to sell underutilized state government property, returning it to more productive use and generate savings that can be re-invested in services to taxpayers," she said in a statement Tuesday.

Lawmakers question whether the sales will be done in time and if it's appropriate to budget dollars that aren't yet in hand.

"I don't want to come back again and face some of the tough cuts that have to be made" if the dollars don't pan out, said House Speaker Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles.

Nichols said there are buyers identified for nearly all the property.

As she presented Jindal's budget proposal to lawmakers, Nichols said it was reasonable to use dollars the administration anticipated to have, rather than make deeper cuts in state programs and services.

Sen. Ed Murray, D-New Orleans, noted that the state still doesn't have all the money in hand for a lease of the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital that the Jindal administration used to balance the current year's budget, with only four months remaining in the fiscal year.

If the new property sales proposed by the Jindal administration hit snags and the money doesn't arrive as expected, Louisiana's colleges would face a new round of cuts, under the governor's spending plans.

Used to balance the governor's budget are anticipated sales of the Point Clair Farm, a nearly 2,200 acre-site in Iberville Parish that is an unused piece of former prison property; a now empty 1970s-era Baton Rouge office building called Wooddale Towers; a portion of the Southeast Louisiana Hospital campus in St. Tammany Parish; and the State Office Building, an art deco-era property in downtown Baton Rouge.

The governor's budget also assumes the state will bring in $4.9 million from the sale of the former insurance building across the street from the Louisiana Capitol, currently the site of a parking deck.

Several of the sales could face hurdles.

For example, lawmakers have agreed to sell Wooddale Towers, but for a required minimum bid of more than twice the amount anticipated by the Jindal administration.

For the old insurance building site, dueling appraisals greatly differ on its value, and lawmakers have expressed reservations about selling real estate so close Louisiana's historic capitol building to private investors rather than using it for government office space.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Bobby Jindal proposes sale of $47M in property to balance budget
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0227/Bobby-Jindal-proposes-sale-of-47M-in-property-to-balance-budget
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe