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Louisiana’s Revenue Estimating Conference on Thursday officially freed up $37 million that lawmakers plan to use to pay for business tax breaks, a move made possible by the end of a fight between the governor and the treasurer.
State Treasurer John Schroder had refused to allow state government to spend part of the state’s unclaimed property fund, which had been standard practice for many years. Schroder argued the state is only the caretaker of the money until the rightful owner shows up to claim it and has no right to spend it.
Gov. John Bel Edwards sued to make Schroder release the money, saying the Legislature, not the treasurer, has the constitutional right to make spending decisions. Edwards won in district court, and Schroder vowed to appeal.
But this week, Schroder and the Edwards administration reached an agreement to end the litigation. Schroder is releasing a total of $52 million from the unclaimed property fund, and Edwards is backing a potential constitutional amendment that, if approved by voters, would make the fund off-limits for state government operations in future years.
Legislators this week amended the legislation to protect funding for the I-49 road project and make an accounting tweak that is considered important for the state’s credit rating, which made the proposals more palatable to the administration and state senators who previously had blocked passage.
Senators on Monday unanimously approved the proposed constitutional amendment and a corresponding measure to create a new interest-earning fund for unclaimed property money. State government would be allowed to spend the interest but not the principal.
On Thursday, the state House of Representatives approved both measures with only three dissenting votes, sending it back to the Senate to review House committee amendments.
The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday advanced a state budget that includes $37 million of the additional dollars REC recognized in its official forecast Thursday. The other $15 million will go toward debt associated with the I-49 project.
Numerous tax breaks and incentives are pending in this month’s special session. The leaders of a business task force that legislative leaders created to come up with ideas to jump-start the state’s economy are lobbying for many of those changes.
Supporters have said small businesses hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s response need help to survive. But some lawmakers worry about the accumulated costs of all the tax cuts and subsidies, which could harm the state’s bottom line while in many cases only providing minor benefits to the affected businesses.
In other discussions at Thursday’s REC meeting, Department of Revenue Secretary Kimberly Robinson reported paying out $438 million in state incentives so far this fiscal year. She said more incentive expenditures are pending in the closing days of the fiscal year that ends Tuesday and expects the total to be between $525 million and $550 million.

Submitted Photo
To show appreciation to hospital employees, the St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office donated lunch to Ochsner St. Mary. Pictured from the Sheriff's Office, from left, Skip Hebert, John Kahl and Sheriff Blaise Smith.

Staff Report
A Labadieville man faces a heroin possession charge after a Wednesday traffic stop near Paincourtville, Assumption Parish Sheriff Leland Falcon said.
—Gerrel G. Talbert, Sparrow Street, Labadieville, was arrested Wednesday on charges of possession of heroin, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving with a suspended license.
A uniformed patrol officer observed a vehicle commit a traffic violation and proceeded to stop the vehicle.
The deputy made contact with the driver, now identified as Talbert and noted Talbert to act in a nervous manner. The deputy conducted a pat down search of the person of Talbert and at that time, located drug paraphernalia and a quantity of heroin.
Talbert was booked into the Assumption Parish Detention Center pending a bond hearing.
St. Mary Parish Sheriff Blaise Smith reported this arrest:
—Jude Robert Boudreaux, 21, Oneida Street, Charenton, was arrested at 11:48 p.m. Wednesday for license plate lights required, driving under suspension, switched license plate/stolen license plate, and failure to transfer title. Boudreaux was released on a summons to appear Sept. 24.

Oil fever struck the Louisiana prairies with a vengeance in the summer of 1902, when the Southern Number Four well showed, in the words of the Jennings Daily Record, that it “now appears that a gusher can be secured … just as often as a hole is put into the ground at the proper depth.”
That optimistic claim was made on June 2, 1902, not long after the first well in south Louisiana had been drilled in the Evangeline Field near Jennings.
Southern Number Four had “proved a hundred foot gusher,” which was not as impressive as the nearby Southern Number Three had been, but was still spectacular enough to draw crowds to watch it spew ─ and to catch the eye of speculators as far away as California.
Daily Record headlines for the first weeks of June give some idea of the excitement: "Oil Magnates in Jennings" (June 3), "Oil Refinery For Our City" (June 6), "More Gushers In Soon" (June 10), "Visitors From Pacific State Pay Jennings a Visit" (June 11), "Expecting A Gusher" (June 16).
Speculators went crazy. Land next to the Southern wells sold for $10,000 an acre ($300,000 in today’s money), according to the news reports.
A 45-acre parcel about a quarter of a mile away went for $800 an acre (in 1902 dollars), and “all of the real estate men [were saying] there is a big demand for oil land.”
Even residential lots in town jumped 15% in price.
And that was just part of it all. On June 2, the Record reported that “Jennings is now crowded with people who are interested one way or another of getting hold of a ‘ground floor’ oil proposition.”
A special car carrying “high officials in the Southern Pacific railway” came to town. They were investigating the idea of building a spur to the oil fields to haul tourists in and take oil out.
The Record’s editors worried that Crowley or Iota might try to grab those trains, and argued that “there is no doubt that Jennings is the only practical point from which to build.”
James W. Swayne, “the millionaire manager” of a syndicate that developed much of the Spindletop Field in Beaumont, showed up and began buying land with the idea, the newspaper speculated, of putting down six wells “as a start.”
The Heywood brothers, who also made a pile at Spindletop, were drilling their Jennings No. 2 well and promised big things from it.
Directors of the Mamou Prairie Oil & Mineral Company were small fish by comparison, but they laid out big plans when they met at the MacFarland House hotel on June 10.
They said they had “great faith in the future and believe that in a short time they will be the owners of some first-class producing wells.” Directors of the Pelican Oil Co. said they hoped to produce a gusher within days and were ordering lumber for three more derricks.
Even Hollis Bros. & Leben, the local jewelers, saw a new opportunity.
Shoppers hurrying to their store could become the proud owners of a sterling silver Jennings Oil Gusher Souvenir Spoon.
All of that took place in just a single month, and the craziness didn’t end with the turn of the calendar to July.
If anything, it turned up a notch on the last day of June, when the headlines read: "Jennings No. 2 Is A Gusher ─ Shoots Stream of Oil Fifty Feet Above the Derrick."
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, "Cajuns and Other Characters," is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.