BATON ROUGE (AP) — A Democratic state senator asked lawmakers Tuesday to override Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal’s refusal to accept nearly $100 million in federal stimulus money to expand unemployment benefits.Sen. Eric LaFleur sent a letter to his colleagues requesting support for a resolution that would notify the federal government that Louisiana intends to take the $98.4 million in unemployment dollars.”If we reject these funds, Louisiana taxpayers will be paying to subsidize and support unemployment compensation in states such as California, where Gov. (Arnold) Schwarzenegger has already signaled his intention to accept the funds,” LaFleur, D-Ville Platte, wrote.The money would give unemployment benefits to thousands of people who normally wouldn’t be eligible for them, like some part-time workers. It would also expand benefits to some others, including those with dependents.It would require a change in state law to let those individuals get the benefits. Jindal said that would cost businesses more in taxes, but LaFleur disagrees.Overriding the governor would be difficult, requiring not just legislative approval of LaFleur’s resolution but also of a bill to change the state’s unemployment law — and a two-thirds vote of lawmakers if Jindal vetoes the bill, which the governor has said he would do.”That’s no small task,” said Rep. Gary Smith, D-Norco. Smith said lawmakers should look at the stimulus money before agreeing with the governor’s rejection of any of it, though he hasn’t said whether Jindal’s decision should be overridden.It’s unclear when the resolution would have to be passed for lawmakers to override Jindal. Several Democratic lawmakers said they would support the resolution, but Republican lawmakers recently issued a statement backing Jindal’s stance on the stimulus.Despite being an outspoken opponent of the stimulus bill, Jindal has indicated he intends to tap into at least $2.4 billion of Louisiana’s share of the stimulus. The unemployment money is the only stimulus money Jindal has said Louisiana won’t accept, though he said state agencies still were reviewing the restrictions on many other stimulus funds the state can receive.- – – -Contact The Daily Reveille’s news staff at [email protected]