How Bobby Jindal is leaving a budget mess for Louisiana's next governor

[KeepItReal]

Year after year, Louisiana didn't have enough money to cover its expenses, yet Gov. Bobby Jindal refused to roll back income tax cuts or ever-increasing corporate tax breaks. Instead, he raided reserve funds and sold off state property.

Jindal suggested job growth from his economic development wins would replenish those assets once the recession ended. It hasn't -- and money from the lucrative oil industry has taken a nose dive with crude prices. Now, the Republican is running out of short-term patches and is struggling to plug a $1.6 billion budget hole just as he tries to build support for a possible 2016 presidential run.

"They've used all the smoke that was in the can and all the mirrors that they could buy and now they're out of tricks. Their solution is to gut higher education like a fish," said Republican state Treasurer John Kennedy.

More than $1 billion of the shortfall on the horizon for the fiscal year that begins July 1 can be tied to Jindal's refusal to match the state's spending to its yearly revenue over his two terms in office -- as he also steadfastly refused to consider tax increases.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/02/how_bobby_jindal_is_leaving_a.html#incart_m-rpt-2

Every time I hear how messed up Kansas is under Brownback, I think he's a financial genius compared to "Bobby" Jindal and the Louisiana GOP.

[PADemD]

1. Just like Pennsylvania, n/t