Jindal Talks-Up Legislation at the Chamber’s Summer Speaker Series

By Chaney Ferguson
The Times of SWLA




Governor Jindal reiterated his stance on state ethics and job creation at the Chamber Summer Speaker Series luncheon on Friday July 10.

“We can’t spend our way back to prosperity. We don’t have this D.C. philosophy here in Louisiana,” said Jindal.

Louisiana’s driving philosophy has been a strategy completely based around job creation.
“We started last year with our first special session on ethics. LSU and Forbes did studies that said the number one thing we can do to attract jobs is to crack down on corruption,” said Jindal.

“Everybody has their favorite jokes, but the problem is those jokes were stealing opportunities from our state. As long as people think that who you know is more important than what you know people didn’t want to invest in our state,” said Jindal.

A year ago the center for public integrity ranked Louisiana 44th for disclosure. This year we rank number one in the country for disclosure on the CPI index.

“I think it is great to be number one on a national ethics list. It sends a message to this country that it is a new Louisiana,” sad Jindal.

At the luncheon Governor Jindal praised state delegates for serving the lake area and working collectively to accomplish what is beneficial for the lake area.

Governor Jindal shared about some of the bills passed to help Louisiana and Lake Charles.

• Eleven bills were passed that protect our children from sex predators
• 1.5 million dollars to protecting and restoring our coast
• 3 DWI laws passed that will help make our streets safer and protect our children and families
• 3.3 billion dollars spent on roads
• 56 million dollars on road projects right here in Lake Charles
• Laws were passed on discipline in our classroom

Despite the money coming into the lake area, the 2009 Legislative session revolved around budget cuts. Those cuts affected two areas, higher education and health care.

Higher education was originally supposed to have a general fund reduction of $213 million, but the Legislature restored $100 million from the original cut.

After looking at health care cuts, lawmakers identified an additional $45 million to alleviate some of the health care cuts.

During this time of economic uncertainty and the state budget being what it is, Governor Jindal encourages the people of Louisiana to look at the solution in the workforce.

“We don’t need to rely on our natural resources, but we need to have a productive workforce. The states that are going to move forward are the ones with an educated and productive workforce,” said Jindal.

The Governor said the session has only started in revamping Louisiana’s workforce training efforts.