Nearly $1 billion in state tax income lost since Katrina

Louisiana's budget deficit got an official number today -- nearly 971 million dollars lost in state tax income that the governor and lawmakers will have to slash from state spending in the remaining eight months of the budget year.
Economists warn the budget problems could worsen as they get more concrete details of the lost sales, income, gambling and business taxes from the back-to-back blows of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
And the figure formally recognized by the state's revenue estimating panel doesn't include the dollars that individual state agencies will lose as fees paid directly to them for licenses and penalties or the federal matching dollars that will be lost because state agencies won't be able to put up their part of the cash.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco's top budget adviser, Jerry Luke LeBlanc, says the governor will make a series of cuts to state departments before the Legislature convenes in a special session November 6...

She can cut $300 million, but hasn't said what it will be yet.
(source)