For years Louisiana has struggled with billion-dollar shortfalls, but this year the state starts out with a surplus of about $1 billion.
Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne told the Press Club of Baton Rouge yesterday that the state recently finished closing out the books for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2021. With the bills paid, state accountants found the amount of money left over to be significant.
State officials had presumed a struggling economy when the pandemic began in March 2020 and set their estimates accordingly. But the economy turned out stronger than expected, which led to much higher collections of corporate and individual income taxes according to Dardenne.
But officials point out that federal aid in the state’s recovery from business closures, and stay-at-home orders required to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, also played a role in supporting the state’s better than expected economy.
