State Coastal Group Approves $884 Million Spending Plan

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A plan for how $884 million will be spent on coastal protection and restoration in Louisiana  in fiscal year 2016 has been approved by the state's main coastal board.

Although the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority was asked initially to join with other agencies in finding reductions in spending to the tune of $2.2 million to help balance the state budget, The Advocate reports all that money had been returned to the budget by Wednesday.

However, the coastal authority is still expecting about $2.5 million less than the average amount the authority has received from mineral revenues.

Of the $884 million, about 67 percent will go toward construction of projects with the remainder going to engineering and design, planning, operation and maintenance, as well as operational expenses.

(Information in this story is from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com)

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.