01/20/2010
LED Implements Streamlining Recommendations While Continuing Focus On Positioning Louisiana For Economic Growth
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Louisiana Economic Development announced
today that it is continuing to implement several recommendations to
streamline the department's operations. These recommendations were
part of the Commission on Streamlining Government's effort to
achieve outcome-driven savings throughout state government.
"Our overriding goal is to position Louisiana's economy to
outperform the South and the U.S. on a regular basis," said LED
Secretary Stephen Moret. "Even during difficult budget cycles, we
must continue to move forward with our aggressive economic
development plans. Accordingly, we are making targeted changes that
allow us to continue critical investments in top priority programs
that directly support business retention, expansion and
recruitment. We expect to build on our record over the last two
years during which we've announced projects that will create more
than 34,500 new direct and indirect jobs and $4.6 billion in
capital investment."
The Commission on Streamlining Government made the following
recommendations, which LED is implementing:
- Shift all workforce development funding
to the new LED Faststart™ program. By launching
LED Faststart, Louisiana recently joined a small number of
states that offer national-caliber, comprehensive workforce
development programs. Following best practices established
elsewhere, LED has discontinued its traditional, less effective
workforce grant program for an annual savings of $2.5 million.
- Reduce LED's Entertainment Workforce
Program. Louisiana's comprehensive workforce development
plan now includes rapid response training dollars to support
high-demand training needs, as well as a community and technical
college system with a greater focus on meeting growing workforce
demands. These programs will meet a significant portion of
Louisiana's entertainment workforce training needs, allowing LED to
reduce funding for its Entertainment Workforce Program by $0.8
million to $1.5 million annually.
- Reduce LED's Site-specific Development
Fund. The national economic slowdown and shifting federal
regulatory climate have reduced the number of large manufacturing
projects nationally. Accordingly, LED is able to sustain a
reduction in its Site-specific Development Fund of $1.5 million
annually without reducing the agency's business development
effectiveness.
- Reconfigure supporting guarantees for
LED's Loan Guarantee Program. LED traditionally has over
collateralized its loan guarantees to the extent that reserve
levels dramatically exceeded historical loss ratios. By
reconfiguring the supporting guarantees for LED's Loan Guarantee
Program, LED can produce an annual savings of $5 million to $7
million without reducing the number or value of loan guarantees
available for small businesses.
By implementing these targeted streamlining recommendations, LED
will be able to preserve high-priority initiatives related to
retaining and expanding existing Louisiana businesses, increasing
Louisiana's economic competitiveness, supporting small business
development and growth, cultivating regional economic assets,
providing customized workforce solutions, marketing Louisiana's
strengths to business executives around the world, improving the
competitiveness of Louisiana's local communities, offering
competitive incentives to encourage business growth, implementing
policies to enhance innovation-based economic development efforts
and cultivating new high-growth industries.
