Gov. Jindal chops Louisiana budget

BATON ROUGE — Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered Friday the state budget be cut by $107 million to account for a deficit from the last fiscal year.

Higher education will take one-third of the cuts, about $35 million, with the bulk hitting the Louisiana State University System. The state Department of Health and Hospitals must cut $21 million - and another $50 million to account for a separate shortfall in the state Medicaid program. A $12 million cut will hit the social services department.

The cuts mean that 300 health-care workers and another 100 college employees will be laid off.

Health-care cuts include reductions to parish health units and closing the public health unit in New Orleans. A state-run group home for the developmentally disabled in Terrebonne Parish will be shuttered.

The deficit is from the budget year that ended in June, the first time in nearly a decade the state ended a fiscal year in the red. The state isn’t allowed to deficit-spend.