Louisiana

DALLAS — Gov. Bobby Jindal outlined plans to legislative leaders Thursday that would generate revenue quickly as Louisiana faces a $1.6 billion hole in the fiscal 2012 general fund budget.

A random sample of 24 of 277 New Orleans hotels subject to the city's hotel tax found a total of $145,000 in unpaid taxes, including penalties and interest, over a three-month period in 2010.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said last week that he will not use new taxes or fees to balance the fiscal 2012 budget despite a projected revenue shortfall of $1.6 billion.

The Louisiana State Bond Commission continued its efforts Monday to allocate the state's remaining capacity of Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds by awarding $91 million of the tax-exempt bonds at a special session.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Seven months after the largest oil spill in U.S. history, the credit ratings of state and local government bond issuers in the Gulf Coast region have remained stable, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

DALLAS — Louisiana has delayed a scheduled sale of $96.1 million of refunding bonds due to the recent rise in interest rates.

DALLAS — New Orleans had hoped to get up to $1 billion from leasing Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport to a private operator. But the recent decision by the city to terminate the privatization effort leaves it reconsidering an earlier proposal that included a possible transfer of the facility to Louisiana.

DALLAS — A transportation coalition is seeking legislative sponsors for Louisiana state constitutional amendments that would raise the gasoline tax and establish a $3 billion bond program for highway efforts.

DALLAS — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will eliminate a $106.8 million deficit in the $25.5 billion budget for fiscal 2011 mostly by cutting expenditures for higher education and health care.

DALLAS — The Louisiana State Bond Commission allocated the state’s remaining $232.7 million of Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds Thursday to three applicants that had sought the right to issue $700 million of the tax-exempt private-activity debt.

DALLAS — New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu rolled out a $483 million operating budget for 2011 on Thursday that he said would pay for essential city services while setting strict spending limits.

DALLAS — Louisiana’s chief budget officer huddled Tuesday and Wednesday with state agency heads, elected officials, and higher education executives on potential spending cuts after determining the state ended fiscal 2010 more than $100 million in the red.

DALLAS — The Louisiana State Bond Commission on Tuesday awarded all the state’s dwindling capacity for Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds to two projects in anticipation that GO Zone bonds already allocated to other projects will be returned to the pool.

DALLAS — Louisiana will take a two-part, $375.3 million general obligation refunding to market Tuesday in a competitive sale, almost six months after the state had scheduled it.

DALLAS — The Louisiana State Bond Commission on Thursday approved $600 million of the state’s dwindling capacity of Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds for an iron and steel project in St. James Parish.

DALLAS — The Louisiana State Bond Commission is expected to allocate $600 million of Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds to a single project at its Thursday meeting.

DALLAS — Voters in East Baton Rouge Parish may have their third chance in 30 months to decide on taxes to support a bond package similar to one that has been rejected twice.

DALLAS — The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority will build two new streetcar lines with proceeds from the upcoming negotiated sale of $75 million of sales tax revenue bonds.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Three Gulf Coast states are trying to beat the deadline to sell billions of dollars of private-activity bonds allocated by Congress in the 2005 Gulf Opportunity Zone Act.

DALLAS — The Federal Emergency Management Agency will make a $1.8 billion lump-sum payment to public school districts in Orleans Parish to rebuild or replace facilities damaged five years ago by Hurricane Katrina. The parish has the same boundaries as the city of New Orleans.