Gov. Bobby Jindal has traveled the state, parish by parish, for the past months, handing out jumbo-sized foam checks to local governments and giving speeches about the state of Louisiana’s economy.By the end of his tour, Jindal will have presented 53 parishes with individual shares of $565.5 million for hurricane recovery and preparation. Though he signed the checks with his name, the governor has not credited the federal stimulus money, which makes up more than half of the funds. The bulk of the money Jindal presented comes from a set of federal grants, including FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Programs and Community Development Block Grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Additional funds came from Local Government Assistance Program grants.Jindal is one of the Republican party’s most outspoken critics of the stimulus package, calling it a “nearly trillion dollar stimulus which has not stimulated” in an article he recently penned for politico.com. The governor also tried to reject $98 million in stimulus dollars earlier this year.The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development granted Louisiana $176,455,798 from the stimulus package in February. The HUD allocated $17,370,857 of those funds into CDBGs, which are given to state and local governments to be spent on their own community development programs provided the state presents action plans for federal approval.To help stimulate the further creation of new jobs in the state, Jindal’s checks also awarded portions of the $19,545,929 Byrne/JAG job training programs, which help create fund law enforcement and crime prevention, to local governments.Though they are often eager to accept the money, some state Democrats are skeptical when they see the name signed at the bottom of the governor’s checks.”I’m grateful we have it. I’m glad he didn’t turn it down, but I don’t like that he’s taking credit for it after saying he would turn all this money down,” said Donald Bloom, second vice chairman of the Jefferson Parish executive committee.Bloom said it was hypocritical of Jindal to ignore the source of the funds and take credit for money he was supposedly against. He called Jindal’s denial to credit the stimulus package a coverup.”I realize that people like to take credit for things, but a majority of this money comes from the Recovery Act, and we don’t like the hypocrisy of it,” Bloom said. Jindal’s office did not respond to requests for an interview on the topic.In his speeches at each of the stops on his “working tour,” Jindal emphasized job creation as the most important aspect of economic prosperity in the state. Jindal often highlighted a number of ethics and business reforms his administration has made since taking office.Jindal said he is bypassing the tortuous bureaucracy which kept funds out of the hands of local governments after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 by funneling cash directly to parishes and local governments.Jindal’s tour has been well accepted across the state, drawing huge crowds and applause from citizens and local political leaders after accepting the checks. The governor used the statewide tour to speak about the state’s success under his leadership, including the creation of 32,000 new jobs and state ethics reforms.____
Contact Adam Duvernay at [email protected]