Tagged: Paul Rainwater

The Legislature's chief economist says Louisiana closed the last fiscal year with a surplus of $180 million.

Greg Albrecht gave the news to the state income forecasting panel, the Revenue Estimating Conference, on Thursday.

Albrecht says the better-than-expected financial performance for the budget year that ended June 30 was largely tied to corporate tax collections, which were significantly higher than forecast.

Gov. Bobby Jindal's chief budget aide says he wants to hire a private company to advise him on the best way to collect more than $1 billion owed to state government.

Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater tells The Advocate the unpaid bills include medical services, college tuition installment payments, environmental quality monitoring and other expenses.

With state government struggling to pay its own bills during the economic downturn, state officials are pressing the governor to get aggressive about the debts.

State government offices across 22 parishes will shut down Tuesday and Wednesday because of Tropical Storm Isaac, expected to grow into a hurricane.

Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater on Monday announced the closures, which cover parishes in the tropical storm warning, hurricane watch and hurricane warning areas.