Democratic state lawmakers in New Orleans are out millions of dollars they marshaled for local nonprofits and other projects as part of the state budget after Republican Gov. Jeff Landry vetoed over a dozen of their requests late Monday.
Out of more than 600 earmarks, Landry's veto pen undid $4.32 million for 21 funding requests approved by the state House and Senate through the Legislature’s budgeting process earlier this year. It appeared that at least 15 of the 21 requests Landry vetoed came from state legislative districts controlled by Democrats, many from New Orleans.
In New Orleans, the vetoes included $1.5 million slated for projects by the Algiers Development District and $1 million for the New Orleans-based Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.
Landry jettisoned another million set for the Catholic Charities of Acadiana, plus a slew of smaller cash requests for other groups.
Calls to four New Orleans-area lawmakers were not returned. Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, said he was traveling and could not comment on the vetoes.
Landry's moves weren't without precedent. Other governors have also used their veto pen to strike down opposing lawmakers' favored spending proposals, including Gov. John Bel Edwards: Republican legislators who drew his ire knew they risked putting their pet projects on the line.
In a letter to House Speaker Phillip DeVillier and Senate President Cameron Henry, Landry said he chose which requests to veto by evaluating whether they “serve an appropriate government function and if the appropriation was an efficient and effective use of state resources.”
He called for belt-tightening on money sent to non-governmental organizations, which in Louisiana routinely receive infusions of government cash.
“Prior to (the) next legislative session, we plan to work with the Legislature to develop criteria for what type of NGO requests represent the best use of our scarce state resources,” Landry wrote.
The quantities of cash Landry jettisoned are relatively small in the scheme of state budget discussions, which in recent years have involved roughly $45 billion in state agency budgets, cash for local projects and spending on major infrastructure initiatives with one-time tax collections.
But even the small amounts of money Landry rejected for local nonprofits and projects can be substantial for those organizations, said Steven Procopio, president of the Public Affairs Research Council, a Baton Rouge-based good government group.
In a statement, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities President Miranda Restovic said the vetoed $1 million would have paid for partnership operational expenses including staff retention and emergency preparedness. The group, which according to tax filings had revenue of $5.6 million in 2022, the most recent available data, promotes arts and culture throughout Louisiana.
"We will continue to bring our entrepreneurial spirit to the work of supporting the resilience of our cultural infrastructure and look forward to working with the State and the Governor’s Office on these important initiatives," Restovic said.
Other requests killed by Landry's veto pen include $250,000 for a group in New Orleans that offers housing to formerly incarcerated people; $250,000 for the Dr. James Gilmore Institute for Human Development and Excellence, a Baton Rouge-based nonprofit that offers business and career growth opportunities to youth; $500,000 for Teach for America; and $50,000 for New Orleans’ Gentilly Development District, among others.
Procopio said his group supports tighter guardrails around sending government cash to non-governmental groups. Still, Landry’s explanation of how he decided which requests to veto leaves him open to the accusation that the vetoes were wielded as a political cudgel, Procopio said.
“If he had vetoed all of the NGOs, we could have applauded that — or even if he’d said, look, ‘here’s the criteria I’d used to get rid of these particular ones,’” Procopio said. “The problem is it looks like he’s picked some winners and losers and it’s not clear why.”
In a statement, Landry said that "we believe that NGO’s who have solid private charitable donations should live within those means — not through taxpayer dollars."
Not all of Landry’s vetoes entailed yanking cash from local groups or projects.
One of them reversed a deal orchestrated by former New Orleans state senator and Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Karen Carter Peterson that helped earmark $7 million in state funds for the Odyssey House, a New Orleans-based addiction treatment facility, to create southeast Louisiana’s first residential gambling treatment center.
Peterson helped earmark that cash shortly before she resigned her post in 2022 amid a federal investigation into her embezzlement of Democratic Party and campaign funds. She pled guilty to a single count of wire fraud.
Last year, Peterson pushed lawmakers to get that state money moved from Odyssey House to the Metropolitan Human Services District, a state-run entity. Landry’s veto appears to strike down a portion of one budget bill that would have made official the transfer of cash for the program to the Metropolitan Human Services District.
Kate Kelly, Landry’s press secretary, said money for the program will still go to Odyssey House. Kelly said that the Louisiana Department of Health, which oversees the Metropolitan Human Services District, approved of keeping the program under Odyssey House.
Reached by phone Tuesday, Peterson said she no longer had any involvement in the project and declined to discuss it further.
Ed Carlson, the Odyssey House CEO, did not immediately return a phone message.