State Treasurer John Kennedy Hosts Financial Summit for Local Governments
Treasurer Offers Open Door Policy to Local Public Administrations

BATON ROUGE, LA - State Treasurer John Kennedy hosted a financial summit in Baton Rouge at the Louisiana Municipal Association Building on Tuesday for local governments affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Information was provided about current available recovery programs and possible future opportunities.

Topics covered at the summit centered around the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005 (GOZA) and included Gulf Tax Credit Bonds, advance refunding of outstanding debt, supplemental Community Development Block Grant funds (CDBG), Community Disaster Loans (CDL) and the hiring of financial advisors. More than 100 people attended the summit representing most of the parishes covered by the GOZA.

“The purpose of this meeting was not to talk about the problems the local governments are facing,” said Treasurer Kennedy. “We wanted to talk about the solutions. Local governments in hurricane-impacted areas have approximately $8 billion outstanding in bonded indebtedness and that figure doesn’t include operating expenses. This meeting was long overdue, but with last week’s approval by the State Bond Commission of the issuance of Gulf Tax Credit Bonds, we are one step closer to having all measures in place to move forward.”

“I thought the financial summit was very informative and the timing was good with the Legislature currently in session,” said Brett Stoltz, chief accountant for the St. Tammany Parish School Board. “We found out about an additional $14 million we will receive that we didn’t know existed until now.”

“The exchange of information was great and the projects were things that needed to be shared with local governments and elected officials,” said David Riggins, mayor of Vinton. “The CDBG program will be an avenue that we can explore further to get the additional funds we need for materials since the costs increased after the storm. Also, the suggestion of hiring financial advisors was much needed, in my opinion, and the local governments should strongly consider using this option.”

“The most difficult job in the public sector is local government,” said Treasurer Kennedy. “Our role is not to interfere, but to help when we can by providing local agencies with all the tools they will need to move toward recovery. I encourage those in need of assistance to take advantage of these opportunities and let us know what we can do to help. I think our first financial summit was a big success and we will do it again as more developments occur.”

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