BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Governor Bobby Jindal will again ask lawmakers to make it easier to tap into protected funds when Louisiana faces a budget shortfall.

The governor wants lawmakers to allow dedicated funds that are usually protected to be cut up to 10 percent when the state faces a budget deficit. Currently, they can be cut up to five percent.

Also, Jindal wants nearly all the hundreds of dedicated funds to require legislative reauthorization to continue, and he wants interest generated by dedicated funds to be available for spending on other budget areas when the state has a deficit.

Jindal says the ideas will help shrink cuts to higher education and health care, which have few protected pots of money and are the two largest areas vulnerable to budget slashing.

Similar proposals backed by Jindal failed to gain approval in the last legislative session.

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