Louisiana Weighs How to Collect Unpaid Bills

Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater will outline a plan to hire a debt collection consultant to advise Louisiana on how to collect its unpaid receivables.

Rainwater, the chief budget aide for Gov. Bobby Jindal, said the unpaid bills total more than $1 billion as of March 31. He will provide details of a collection plan to the state’s Cash Management Review Board in Baton Rouge Friday.

Jindal may propose new legislation to solve the problem, Rainwater said. A plan to give debt-collection authority to the Department of Revenue failed in the 2009 Legislature.

Most of the receivable debts are from medical services to the poor and elderly, and probably cannot be collected, he said.

Louisiana Treasurer John Kennedy said the state attorney general should be in charge of the debt collection.

Some departments collect their own debt, Kennedy said, but a centralized effort should be established to focus on collecting delinquent medical bills, unpaid student loans and other outstanding fees.

Kennedy said Louisiana should decide which bills cannot be collected, and then withhold tax returns and payments to businesses and individual that owe money to the state.

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