On Feb. 12, Republican Governor Jeff Landry gave his first budget proposal for the next financial year. 

The more fiscally conservative budget mainly focuses on public safety and policing while not changing much else in regards to health, education or financial investment.

The total state operating budget includes $44.2 billion, $22 billion of which are federal funds. The budget is $3 billion less than the previous year largely due to a loss of federal funding. With this smaller budget, most spending is remaining the same as the current year with a few exceptions.

While no new policies or programs have been proposed regarding health, education or the financial sector, the governor runs a tough-on-crime platform. Landry has put aside $51.5 million for the Department of Public Safety and Corrections to fund the longer sentences and harsher penalties he hopes to enact. However, longer sentences will mean more prison funding down the line, in order for facilities to support inmates serving those longer sentences.

Along with the $51.5 million, the prison system will also be receiving a portion of a $127 million repair fund which will be used for a new water system, air conditioning and fire alarms for one of the detention facilities.

Part of that repair fund will also be used to buy 238 new vehicles for the state police who are another large recipient of state funds in this budget. The state police will be receiving an additional $42.1 million to help fund Troop NOLA, which will station 40 state troopers in the French Quarter of New Orleans in order to crack down on crime.

And with drug-related crimes being another one of Landry’s targets for the next year, he has allocated an additional $5.7 million to the state judicial system for drug crime prosecutions. 

When asked what Landry’s priority should be for this year, University of Louisiana at Lafayette student Tamiyah Rhines, a sophomore nursing major said, “I think he should be more willing to listen to the public… Louisiana has a lot of schools that don’t have much funding. The education here isn’t as good as other schools so I feel like he should be willing to fix that and raise the pay of teachers.”. 

Last year instead of granting teachers a permanent pay raise, the state issued $2,000 stipends to all public teachers across the state. While the $198 million program is still in effect for next year, Landry has proposed some changes for it.

Instead of the stipends being given to all teachers across the board, the governor instead wants to target STEM teachers and other hard-to-fill positions. He also wants to target regions that especially struggle with education and hiring new teachers, as a way to incentivize more educators.

Many factors influenced the choice to give teachers a stipend instead of a permanent pay raise like many teachers are asking for. Not only has the state Department of Education lost $900 million of federal funds for COVID support but a 45 cent sales tax is expected to not be renewed in 2025, lowering state revenue.

Concerning the governor’s change to the stipend program, Caitlin Jackson, a freshman engineering major said, “I was in school band for years and I’ve always been very creative and I can imagine the struggle [of being a teacher]. We already lost our band director because of the school board. 

And we struggled to find new ones and then the new ones left. And so I think the non-STEM teachers deserve their flowers too.”

Many UL Lafayette students expressed concerns not only regarding the state’s education system  but also state infrastructure and road conditions. Luckily we do have a $325 million surplus of state funds from the previous year, $211.5 million of which will be used for road and bridge construction and repairs, as well as coastal restoration projects.