(AP) – Gov. Bobby Jindal wants the state to shed some property for upfront cash, offering budget plans that include selling a state mental hospital, a parking lot overlooking the Louisiana Capitol and a prison in central Louisiana.
If the property sales generate the money assumed in Jindal’s proposals, $35 million would be used for next year’s operating budget, and another $40 million would be sent to the state’s “rainy day” fund.
Lawmakers will consider the ideas this session.
The administration proposes to sell the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital and use the proceeds for LSU’s public hospital operations. Money from the proposed sale of the Avoyelles Correctional Facility and the site of the former insurance building near the Capitol would be plugged into the rainy day fund.
None of the sales are done deals. The prison sale, to convert it to a privately run facility, would require legislative approval.
Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater, the governor’s chief budget adviser, described the old insurance property and the NOAH site as unused state space.
“It’s certainly not in the taxpayer interest for state government to hold onto property that it’s not using, and with these efforts we will return them to productive use,” Rainwater said in an e-mailed statement.
Neither site has an identified buyer, according to Michael DiResto, spokesman for the governor’s budget office, the Division of Administration.
The site of the former insurance building now contains a two-level parking structure on valuable real estate, doled out to state employees and lobbyists during legislative sessions. The Department of Insurance built another office in a different location nearby, and the old building was imploded. Over the years, lawmakers and former governors’ administrations have proposed various ideas for using the land, like creating legislative offices or relocating other state offices to a new building that could be constructed there.
“We would use (the) state land surplus property sale or auction process. And we would limit or restrict potential uses to be appropriate for the area,” DiResto said.
If more than $35 million is raised by selling the prison or more than $5 million is raised by selling the old insurance building location, any additional dollars would go into a set-aside fund for health services.
The state’s rainy day fund, officially called the Budget Stabilization Fund, is about $150 million below its cap. A court dispute is ongoing in which lawmakers are accused of not properly refilling the fund after using it two years ago to help fill a budget shortfall. A state district judge sided with the Legislature.
___
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
 
____ Contact The Daily Reveille news staff at [email protected]