Is Kristy Nichols over her head when it comes to fiscal management?

 

In October, 2012 Jindal hired Kristy Nichols as Commissioner of Administration for the state of Louisiana.

If you think that title is rather ambiguous, the educational qualifications for the job are even more confusing.  Apparently all one needs is loyal service to Jindal and a B.A. in business administration, with a master’s degree in communications thrown in for good luck.

Further adding to this confusion are the job responsibilities as defined on the state’s website. These include,  “(The) performing (of) a wide variety of legislatively mandated activities and other required functions of state government, including overseeing the general management of all state finances and financial operations; preparing the Executive Budget and the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR); ensuring general fiscal accountability throughout state government; making purchases for state agencies when required by executive order; controlling and assigning state surplus property; providing and assigning state owned and leased facilities to state agencies; maintaining travel regulations for state officials and employees; conducting such planning activities as are necessary to maximize the present and future effectiveness of state government; and administering Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Funds.”

Seems like a tough job for one person, requiring only minimalistic job qualifications, and so far our commissioner, Kristy Nichols, isn’t measuring up to the task too successfully.   Each year, since employed, she has presented unrealistic budget estimates which have resulted in our legislators passing budgets funded with monies that never materialized.  This has repeatedly lead to mid-year budget cuts for state entities, the latest one occurring in November of this year.

Apparently even our astute legislators don't trust her budget proposals because last year they questioned using hundreds of millions in property sales and other one-time money to plug the 2013-14 budget. However, Nichols casually assured them, "We have not put anything in the budget that isn't expected to fully materialize."

Well, that wasn't the case, which lead to Nichols having to borrow $70 million in so-called "seed money" from state Treasurer John Kennedy's office to help the state's universities survive the fiscal year.

Additionally, in January of this year, after state revenue projections dropped by $34.7 million, Nichols announced a government hiring freeze through June, 2015.  Ironically, this was followed by a no bid contractual hiring of Alvarez and Marsal for $4.2 million to find ways for the state to come up with $500 million. But the state's budget wasn't in trouble, Nichols promised.

"We are confident that the Louisiana economy is growing," Nichols said, "and we believe revenue will grow with it."   However, revenues didn't grow as she predicted and now the Jindal administration will have to reduce spending for the NEXT seven months by 171 million.  This dire edict announced after she claimed in May that the state had a $175.5 million surplus, which turned out to be unsubstantiated.

With the state facing even bigger financial problems,  due to the decline in the price of a barrel of oil, do we really want Nichols to continue to call the shots with the track record she has already amassed?

Then again, maybe Nichols is just what we need to finally undermine Jindal’s chances for a presidential bid.  If she ends up helping to bankrupt the state, that wouldn’t reflect too well on Bobby’s national image.

But until that happens legislators had better get used to our communications major’s catch phrase, “La. Revenues not as high as anticipated.”