A $50 million list of planned state construction spending, ranging from local museums and road projects to a new state office building, will move forward after receiving final approval from the State Bond Commission.
The biggest ticket item on the list is $11 million for a new state office building across the street from the state Capitol that will include a parking garage and offices for the state economic development department.
Most of the projects were authorized for funding by former Gov. Kathleen Blanco's administration and were simply waiting in line because of a backlog of construction spending approved by Blanco and the Legislature.
The Blanco administration, like previous administrations before hers, overcommitted the state to a list of projects several years long.
Louisiana has an annual cap on borrowing that limits spending on construction projects. The limit for the current fiscal year that began July 1st is $350 million, but $300 million of that was slated for projects already ongoing from the Blanco administration.
The remaining $50 million was divvied up in an agreement between state lawmakers and Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration: $30 million to the administration and $10 million each to the House and the Senate.
Jindal's top budget adviser, Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis, said the governor's office used all of its allocation to chip away at the backlog left by the previous governor. The House and Senate used their funding for a mix of new projects and others already in the pipeline.
A more than $1 billion backlog of projects with outstanding lines of credit approved during Blanco's term remain to be funded in later years, Davis said.
"We're on course to alleviating that problem, although it will take several years to do so," she said.
The Bond Commission approved the list without objection.