BATON ROUGE, La. -- Gov. Bobby Jindal has nixed funding for coastal parishes struggling with the oil spill, teacher stipends and a list of lawmakers' pet projects from the $26 billion budget bill. Jindal's office released the line-item vetoes Friday night, for the bills to finance state government operations in the new fiscal year that begins July 1.
Along with the funding stripped, the governor also removed a series of requirements added by lawmakers to give them more oversight of education contracts and health department privatization efforts.
One of the biggest-ticket items cut from the bill was a $24.9 million spending plan to help coastal parishes with their spill response efforts. Jindal's veto letter says oil giant BP should be responsible for covering those costs, not state taxpayers.
