La. lawmakers approve $8M in ‘mega-fund’ spending

Lawmakers agreed today to dip into the state’s economic development ‘mega-fund’ to appropriate $8.3 million for business expansions in Lafayette and Monroe estimated to create 1,400 new jobs. The Schumacher Group, a company that manages emergency medicine services for hospitals, is receiving $5 million from the Mega-Project Development Fund. Telecommunications provider CenturyLink is getting $3.3 million from the fund. The joint House and Senate budget committee agreed to the spending, without objection, and to the cooperative endeavor agreements with the companies that include performance benchmarks that must be reached for the businesses to keep the state dollars. Schumacher says it will create 600 new jobs over the next five years as part of the expansion, while CenturyLink says it will add 800 jobs by 2016. Both companies are getting additional state incentives from other programs as well, which will have to be paid by lawmakers in later fiscal years now that the agreements are approved. CenturyLink, a Fortune 500 company, is getting a total of $19.4 million from the state and has agreed to stay headquartered in Monroe through at least 2020, while Schumacher is receiving a total of $9 million and has agreed to stay in Lafayette through at least 2021. The Mega-Project Development Fund is used to attract manufacturing facilities and other big-ticket projects that create over 500 jobs or offer at least $500 million in new investment in the state. After today’s legislative action, Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret said the mega-fund now has $36 million in unobligated dollars remaining for projects.