As Louisiana does the equivalent of scraping the state’s couch cushions for cash, The Associated Press reports lawmakers are realizing millions of dollars remain socked away in savings accounts that agencies, boards and commissions never told them existed.
Sen. Eric LaFleur, chairman of the Senate budget committee, has been trying to get an accounting of what’s out there—and determine whether some of that money can help fill continuing budget gaps.
In the legislative session that starts Monday, LaFleur is proposing to make it tougher to create these escrow accounts and special bank accounts, to require more uniform policies governing them and to enact tighter tracking of them.
He says the money should have been tallied as lawmakers look at an agency’s expenses—and their claims of budget shortfalls.
“Those dollars are out there, and they’re spent by the agency as they need it,” says LaFleur, a Ville Platte Democrat. “It should always have been counted.”
He points to a recent audit that found $6 million from the prison rodeo at the Louisiana State Penitentiary was never deposited in the state treasury or included in the annual corrections budget. Lawmakers didn’t know about the money as they debated the impact of possible cuts to the corrections department, LaFleur says.
Lawmakers have asked Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera to review a decade of financial documents from the rodeo, to determine if other dollars weren’t properly documented and where they went.
LaFleur has enlisted the Treasury Department’s help for months trying to track down financial accounts that state boards, agencies and other government offices have on the books. Tens of millions in unrestricted balances have been tallied so far.
