BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Senator Bill Cassidy called on state lawmakers to invest in infrastructure. He hopes they will address the critical needs in the state to make it more competitive to attract business.
Not only did he highlight the investments they will vote on this session but also the projects that will be coming from the federal funding.
The Louisiana legislature has hundreds of millions of dollars of state surplus as well as federal dollars coming from the infrastructure act to put towards the crumbling roads and bridges. When asked if he supported the $500 million for the Baton Rouge Mississippi River Bridge, he said he will let the state lawmakers decide how to fund it but said it is critical it gets done.
“Until we ease that bottleneck, there will be companies that will not locate here because they think they’re going to chew up too much time trapped in traffic,” Sen. Cassidy said.
He also said that investments in these major projects are better than the money being put all over the place. He wants to see the tax dollars return after the projects are done to shift the focus to other issues.
“We need to be strategic. If all we do is spread a lot of money around on a thin layer but never accomplish a single project, that’s not going to have the pay off 50 years from now,” Sen. Cassidy said.
The senator also talked about his Energy Warp Speed plan aimed at creating energy jobs and fast-tracking production to deal with the current energy crisis. He said it would play into Governor John Bel Edwards ‘ climate change plan with carbon capture.
Sen. Cassidy was also asked once again if he would be running for governor. He said he is going to be focusing on the projects he is working on in Washington before making that decision.