The federal government sent state legislators guidelines on how the $1.8 billion in federal recovery money can and cannot be spent.
Louisiana Commissioner of Administration, Jay Dardenne says those guidelines are good and will help the state free-up money in the state’s general fund, so it can be used to keep some agencies afloat.
“For example the Office of Motor Vehicles,” Dardenne said. “With the motor vehicle offices being closed we are not generating the fees that people normally pay. And so an agency like that, that, is totally dependent on fees is going to need some general-fund help to be operational for the current fiscal year and into the next.”
While Louisiana is in a legislative session, Dardenne says he feels there will be at least one special session later this year in order to handle all the bills up for discussion.
“We got about ten bills that deal with money in Louisiana, from the Legislature Appropriation to the Judicial Budget, to the Capital Outlay Bill, to the Supplemental Bill which allows fiscal spending in the current year, and the entire budget for the fiscal year 2021 that begins on July 1.”
He says Governor John Bel Edwards has allocated about 45% or about 800 million dollars of the $1.8 billion federal money to support local government agencies.