Funding for Loop Study Restored

By Dave Freneaux

In conference committee in the final hours of the legislative session Representatine Hunter Green, Republican-Baton Rouge, had the $5 million BR Loop Study funding added back to the $4.7 billion state construction bill which will be sent to Gov. Jindal for his signature.  The funding originated in the House but was removed from the bill in a Senate Committee.  Subsequent efforts to add the funding back on the floor of the full Senate also failed.  After the Senate passed the bill without the Loop Study funding it went to conference committee, where differences between the House and Senat versions of the bill are reconciled.  That is the point at which Rep. Green successfully added the $5 million back into the bill.  The House then passed the bill as ammended and sent ot on to the Governor.
 
Representatives Clif Richardson and Bodi White, both of Central, voted against the funding.  Richardson comments that we had a commitment over a year ago that input would be sought from Central before the project moved forward, and that has not been done.  Richardson adds, the law indicates that without the participation of Parish Presidents in surrounding Parishes, the loop can only run from the Mississippi River to the Amite River, meaning that $5 million is being spent to study a 12 mile section of toll road.