State Treasurer Says Louisiana Could Wind Up With A Budget Surplus

After months of doom and gloom and reports that the sky was falling concerning Louisiana's budget crisis there is now news that our state could actually wind up with more money than it spent.

How is that possible?

All the talk has been about how legislators were still several million dollars short of a balanced budget for this fiscal year. The outlook for the next fiscal year isn't that rosy either. Still John Kennedy, the state's Treasurer, says a budget surplus is a real possibility.

According to a report in published by the Louisiana Radio Network December saw state revenues down by 15%. That shortfall is now only 6% so we are heading in the right direction. Still a shortfall is not a surplus. Here's how Kennedy explains the situation.

When you raise taxes as much as they did, you really don’t know how much money they’re going to bring in. You can undershoot the mark, but you can overshoot it as well.

A few months ago even Kennedy didn't believe a surplus in the state's budget was possible. After reviewing the figures and the way things are changing through out the state he is at least acknowledging that there is a possibility for a surplus to occur.

We saw an improvement in corporation, income and franchise taxes. The big uptick was in personal income.

It will all depend on how revenue figures react to the tax increases and spending cuts that were passed by the legislature. In other words, it's a way and see kind of thing, but at least we aren't waiting on the budget apocalypse as it seemed we once were.