Jindal hoping for more revenue to fill budget gap

Even after announcing $523 million in health care cuts, Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration has slashed only two-thirds of the spending needed to close the entire gap in Louisiana’s Medicaid budget. The administration is banking on better-than-expected revenue projections to close the remaining budget hole. If that doesn’t pan out in the next few months, more reductions are on the horizon. Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater, the governor’s top budget adviser, says state economists believe there’s a “strong likelihood” the state brought in more tax revenue for the fiscal year that ended June 30 than was expected or budgeted. Rainwater says the state should know if there was surplus cash—and how much—by August or September. If the funding does show up, questions remain about possible legal hurdles to accessing the cash to fill the Medicaid budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. The Jindal administration announced $523 million in cuts to state health care last week, largely to the LSU public hospital system that cares for Louisiana’s poor and uninsured. But the estimated gap in Medicaid financing was $859 million. Another $94 million in state funding will be needed to draw down the federal matching dollars to fill the remaining hole described by the Jindal administration. Lawmakers have already earmarked how excess money should be spent, requiring funding up to $204.7 million to be used to replenish the state’s so-called rainy day fund, which was tapped to fill a deficit that cropped up last year. Read the full story here.