Louisiana Economic Development pitches reorganization, $165 million in one‑time funds to boost sites, marketing and operations

BATON ROUGE — Louisiana Economic Development (LED) officials told the Senate Finance Committee that the agency has completed a statutory reorganization and is seeking $165 million in one‑time funding and additional operating dollars to speed project turnaround and expand workforce and innovation work.

LED fiscal presenter Chaz Nicholson and Secretary Bourgeois described a consolidation of LED’s budget units into a single Office of Economic Development, an expanded set of activities under five strategic “pillars,” and a shift of some programs and employees from other state entities into LED, including work currently housed at the Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS).

Nicholson said the executive budget consolidates two budget units and several programs into agency 250, the Office of Economic Development, and that LED will continue to carry separate debt service and state commitments in other requirement schedules. He told committee members LED’s fiscal year 2026 recommended budget reflects a large nonrecurring decline compared with the current existing operating budget largely because of previously carried‑forward obligations and a drawdown of one‑time federal funding, including State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) tranches earlier in the current budget cycle.

Bourgeois said LED has a strategic plan tied to five pillars — positioning Louisiana to compete, expanding wages for workers, creating thriving regions, optimizing legacy industries and driving a business ecosystem toward innovation and global impact — and described a sharply expanded business pipeline. She said LED’s A/B project pipeline had 175 active projects representing more than 33,000 potential jobs and roughly $124 billion in potential capital investment as of the presentation, a roughly 300% increase in LED’s active project workload since she took office.

Because LED has gained projects without a commensurate increase in operating capacity, Bourgeois said, the department is asking the Legislature for two one‑time funds and operating increases. The department’s request to the Legislature includes:

- $150,000,000 one‑time for a sites and infrastructure fund. Bourgeois said the fund is intended to make sites marketable faster (for example, paying for a needed access road or a rail spur) rather than a program primarily for land acquisition.

- $15,000,000 one‑time for an "opportunity" marketing campaign, proposed as $5 million per year for three years, to be used jointly by LED, the Workforce Commission and the Lt. Governor’s office for talent attraction and business messaging.

- An $11,000,000 operating increase for LED overall, shown in the presentation as $8,000,000 recurring and $3,000,000 nonrecurring; within that ask Bourgeois described $4,000,000 for the Office of Business Development (about $3,000,000 earmarked for additional marketing and roughly $1,000,000 for additional FTE to support international work), $2,000,000 for a certified‑site database and portal (about $1.7 million for development plus an authorized position to manage it), and $1,500,000 nonrecurring for systems upgrades and Salesforce‑type tools.

Bourgeois described integrating the Fast Start workforce program into LED payroll and operations: she said the request reflects transferring 68 Fast Start positions from LCTCS into LED and adding roughly 12 new positions as enhancement — an 80 position change in the department’s headcount but a net smaller increase in total state TO because the workers already existed on another payroll.

Nicholson walked the committee through LED means of finance. He noted state general fund is the majority of LED operating support in the fiscal 2026 recommended budget and that federal funds and statutory dedications (including the entertainment development fund and fees for incentive programs) also appear in the plan. He illustrated how LED historically carries forward obligations for multi‑year incentives and commitments, creating spikes between enacted budgets and fiscal‑year end operating results.

Committee members asked about return on investment and geographic distribution of the $150 million sites fund; Bourgeois said the administration prefers targeted investments rather than equal “peanut butter” allocations, and that the fund would be prioritized toward making existing public sites turnkey — for example ports, airports, industrial parks and other publicly owned sites — rather than buying raw land.

Why it matters: LED officials told the committee the funding would shorten the time needed to make major projects investment‑ready and allow the state to compete when projects require a rapid timeline. Bourgeois repeatedly framed the requests as investments to convert increased business interest into real capital and higher wages.

What’s next: Bourgeois said LED will submit formal budget language and intends to bill for the sites fund and portal work; she also said LED’s partnership board is expected to vote on the department’s final strategic plan in the coming weeks.