Books Balanced For Last La. Budget, With Borrowing

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The books on Louisiana's last budget year have been closed, but with a bit of borrowing from this year to make the numbers work.

To fill gaps in the budget that ended June 30, the treasury had to dip into dollars slated to pay for state agency operations this year. Treasurer John Kennedy says the state used $24 million from this year's budget to plug last year's holes.

That's part of a continuing balancing act used by Gov. Bobby Jindal and state lawmakers that relies on patchwork funding to keep state programs operating.

Jindal's commissioner of administration, Kristy Nichols, said Tuesday the budget was fully funded and the borrowing was only temporary. But Kennedy says there's a "structural deficit" in the budget, relying too heavily on uncertain sources of cash.