Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal last week asked two commissions studying state spending to find almost $1 billion in state budget cuts.
Jindal said he wants the Commission on Streamlining Government to develop ideas on reducing the state budget by $802 million and the Postsecondary Education Review Commission to find ways to cut state aid to public colleges and universities by $146 million a year.
In a letter, Jindal projected a shortfall of nearly $1 billion for fiscal 2011, which begins July 1, 2010, due to lower revenue and higher expenses for providing health care to the poor and uninsured.
The streamlining commission will provide its cost-cutting suggestions to state officials by the end of 2009, but the higher education panel is not required to deliver its recommendations until Feb. 12, which is 45 days before the opening of the 2010 Legislature.
