Gov. Wants Economic Development Funded

The Jindal administration wants lawmakers to leave a $125 million economic development fund alone, rather than use two-thirds of it to plug gaps in next year's budget. The House proposed to strip nearly $82 million from the Mega-Project Development Fund that is used to attract manufacturing facilities and other big-ticket projects that create more than 500 jobs or offer at least $500 million in new investment. Those dollars would be used to pay for other state services, under the House budget proposal.