BATON ROUGE, La. -- Last week several business groups said lawsuits challenging that states proposed biomedical corridor need to be dropped, and Gov. Bobby Jindal needs to make his appointments to the state teaching hospital board soon.
The business leaders said this project is too important to the region, and progress has to speed up. Saints Owner Rita Benson LeBlanc went so far as to say the $2 billion project that includes the teaching hospital and the Veterans’ Affairs hospital is New Orleans next Super Bowl.
Jindal said he couldn't agree more. The governor said the board has critical work to get done.
"We want to board to officially review the business plan, we want the board to make the decision on the revenue bonds that needs to be issued. The state is in for $300 million dollars, the federal government's now in for $475 million dollars. There will still be up to approximately $300 million up to $400 million, depending on the size and the scope of the actual hospital," Jindal said. "The board will have to get that through revenue bonds, so the board has to make sure they're fine with the business plans, and then they've got to be able to go to the market to get those revenue bonds sold."
Jindal said work on the state and the VA hospital is moving, and ground will be broken this year.
On other fiscal matters, the governor said he has proposed a balanced budget for the state with no cuts to higher education, that protects critical programs, does not raise taxes and is $5 billion less than last year’s budget.
Now he has to get it through the state legislature.
"What I've told them is we're not raising taxes. We're not doing the Washington D.C. way. We're not printing money, borrowing money, raising taxes," Jindal said. "This is a fundamental point for our state. Whenever we've face fiscal challenges before, our state has either raised taxes or expanded gambling. We're tightening our belt. We're doing exactly what Louisiana families and businesses are doing across the state. It is the only way to responsibly grow our economy. This is why our economy is out-performing the nation and southern region."
The governor also weighed in on last week’s health care summit in Washington, and he wasn't happy with either Democrats or Republicans.
In short, the governor said there was too much political posturing and too little governing.
"I was dissapointed in both sides. We really do need bi-partisan leadership right now. I think there are bi-partisan health care reform ideas that they can both agree to, Democrats and Republicans, that can help our country. It doesn't appear they're going to do that."
The board of New Orleans' teaching hospital will be made up of 11 members in all.
Besides the governor's four choices, LSU gets to appoint four board members, while one seat each goes to Tulane and Xavier universities. One board seat will rotate every two years between Dillard, Delgado and Southern University.
