Parting shot

This is about as strongly worded an Advocate editorial as you'll see.

After years of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s budget policies, legislators studied with well-informed skepticism his plan to make cuts and juggle funds to arrive at a technically balanced budget.

Amid all the dodges and weaves proposed by Jindal’s commissioner of administration, Stafford Palmieri, one stood out to Sen. Dan Claitor, R-Baton Rouge. It was the $126 million the Jindal administration described as an “anti-fraud” initiative in the state health department that postpones payments to health care providers by two weeks.

Palmieri said that gives the department time to closely check for fraud — but the net effect, Claitor and other lawmakers noted, is that the maneuver pushes payments for services into the next budget year.

“We’re not going to find $126 million in fraud. We’re just slow-paying the providers,” Claitor said.

“This is cash flow management,” Palmieri replied.

It was a last expression of the cynical wonderland of Jindal accounting.

Well, then. Of course it's pretty easy to take shots like this at a lame duck. Weird that it shows up in an unsigned editorial, though.  I thought the Advocate didn't approve of incivility and anonymous comments.