Governor visits Welsh Rotary Club

WELSH - Govenor John Bel Edwards made a visit to Jeff Davis Parish where he was honored as the guest speaker at the Welsh Rotary Club’s monthly meeting.

Edwards had many positive things to say regarding the state continuing to improve its economic future.

The governor asked folks to think back to 2015.

“When I became governor in early January of 2016, we were in a very challenging situation,” said Edwards. “The budget deficit for the state of Louisiana exceeded $2 billion, the largest in the history of the state.”

He said that number reflects more than half of the state’s money used to fund healthcare, higher education, prison facilities and foster care.

“In addition to that deficit, over the past eight years, $3 billion had been taken from trust funds and spent on recurring expenditures, along with the interest income.”

He explained that as of 2016, the state had cut higher education more than any other state in the nation and raised tuition more than any other as well.

“That’s the situation we were in,” said Edwards. “We have done an awful lot of work to stabilize our state through a balanced approach and maintain a balanced budget. We’ve done it.”

Edward said currently the state is in a better place than it was in 2015 in many ways.

“That budget deficit is in our rearview mirror, its over,” he said. “That fiscal cliff that you’ve heard so much about, that’s in our past. Our economy is performing much better. It’s never performed better than it is right now.”

“ We’re in a much better place and we’re moving in a much better direction.”
– Governor John Bel Edwards

He said the state’s economy is the largest it has ever been, according to the most recent numbers for the first quarter of 2019.

“Our gross domestic product exceeds $256 billion. It has never been that high,” Edwards said. “The growth rate for the quarter is 3.8 percent, the tenth fastest growing economy in the country.”

Edwards said he was excited to report that our personal income is at an all time high and unemployment is at historic lows.”

He explained that with a 4.3 percentage rate of unemployment, that is the lowest it has been in 11 years.

The governor attributes this success to having made a commitment that the state would stabilize all of higher education, including community and technical colleges and fouryear universities.

“If we want to inspire confidence in someone making an investment decision about whether they want to expand their operations in our state or create a new presence in our state, you’ve got to first make sure that they comfortable that they will have the educated, skilled and trained employees they need to be successful. If you cant make them comfortable, they are not coming to Louisiana. Those dollars are not coming and opportunities are not going to be here.”

By stabilizing higher education and overcoming that $2 billion deficit, over 160 major projects have been coming to the state, Edwards said.

“More than $39 billion in new capital investment for our state, more than 34,000 new jobs have been created and 30,000 jobs have been retained as a result of those projects,” he confirmed.

Edwards said by investing money in higher education, younger generations will have the opportunity for better employment versus leaving the state in search of rewarding careers.

Edwards said he was excited to announce that in reference to Southwest Louisiana’s job growth and investments over the past several years, there has not been a hotter market anywhere in the United States of America.

He contributes that success to the LNG explosion along with other petrochemical industries and chemical engineering. Lacassine Operating Company will invest millions at the Rail Logix terminal and a $10 million state funded jail facility are also signs of stability and growth, according to Edwards.

“We’re in a much better place and we’re moving in a much better direction,” he said.

Another area where the state has seen major improvement is in regards to health care. He said the state has expanded Medicaid, a feat he said he is quite proud of.

“That alone has saved us over $300 million in uninsured health care,” said Edwards. “Today over 455,000 working poor men and women across the state have health insurance that didn’t have it before, with 2900 of those coming from right here in Jeff Davis Parish.”

That principle savings of over $300 million that went to get the state out of its past deficit. Insured people can obtain primary medical and preventative care which saves money for the state in the long run, he said.

According to Edwards, the state has been able to give the teachers and all support personnel a pay raise for the first time in 10 years, which was welldeserved and long overdue.

“The most important ingredient for quality education is to have a highly professional, welleducated and motivated teacher teaching within his or her area of certification. We have to work with the districts to attract and retain those teachers if we want our kids to have the possible education,” said Edwards.

He said an additional $20 million dollars has been allotted for early childhood education, which will help by preparing students who are entering grade school.

He said those children will with essential knowledge, enabling teachers to build on what they have already learned and advance students at a much quicker pace.

Although Louisiana still faces many challenges, we are in a much better place to overcome and attack them from a position of strength, relative to where we were four years ago, he said.

The governor said he has never been more optimistic about the bright future of Louisiana.

“Now there is no doubt our kids and grandkids are going to have a better Louisiana than we had,” concluded Edwards.