With the deadline for the state of Louisiana to pay the New Orleans Saints their annual reverse rent payment fast approaching, Gov. Kathleen Blanco is scrambling to find ways to fill a $7.1 million gap without raiding the state’s general fund. “For the time being, we may have to beg or borrow money from one or another pots of money out there,” Blanco told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “Every morning I wake up with a new idea . . . and then my idea blows up.” Borrowing money from existing revenue streams would only put off the cash crunch for a year or two, at which point the state’s shortfall is expected to have grown even greater.
