LAFAYETTE, La.-- Gov. Kathleen Blanco plans to give the Legislature a second shot at spending at least $400 million on state roads.

Associated Press

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco

During a speech Saturday to the Louisiana Police Jury Association's annual convention, Blanco said increased construction costs and the pinch brought on by hurricanes Katrina and Rita mandate the need for the extra spending.

The Legislature rejected the plan during a special session in December.

"They failed to do this, even though Louisiana's roads just received a failing grade on a national survey," Blanco said.

Blanco said every month's delay in starting work on highways increases costs by about $4 million. The governor also said she would work to have part of the money earmarked for parishes.

Blanco also said she plans to call for the Legislature to approve spending at least $200 million on coastal restoration work.

The governor was one of several elected officials who spoke to the meeting Saturday.

U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, said a major fight is to have local government debt written off on community disaster loans issued following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Boustany said the state's congressional delegation had a real fear that no community disaster loan money would be approved by the U.S. Congress in the waning weeks of the 2005 session.

"Once we did it, there was a problem because of the local cost share, and that's still a problem," he said.

The federal government has waived local cost sharing in 97 percent of all community disaster loans since 1976, though that has not been the case for Louisiana, Boustany said.

Boustany said he and the rest of the state's congressional delegation have been pressuring the Bush administration to waive that cost share for local governments. If the administration does not act, the delegation recently drafted a bill that would change the rules to allow for the cost share to be forgiven, Boustany said.

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Information from: The Advocate, http://www.theadvocate.com

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