Where did all the money go?

Remember, budget-strapped Louisiana, these past few years have been the "boom times" in our dominant oil and gas exploration industry  Where did the money go?

BATON ROUGE, La. – Higher education, health care and solar and film tax credits are all on the chopping block amid Louisiana's big budget crisis.

Meanwhile, tax exemptions for oil and gas drilling, which have cost state coffers $2.4 billion since 2008, have gone unscathed, and next Monday is Oil and Gas Industry Day at the State Capitol.
That has environmental activist and filmmaker Mike Stagg seething.

"If you're getting $2.4 billion in severance tax exemptions and that's not enough for you in an era when other people are getting cut... that's greed," said Stagg, a former gubernatorial and congressional candidate from Lafayette.

Stagg is preparing to release a documentary that shines new light on a series of legislative audits and revenue reports that sounded an alarm years ago about oil and gas tax collections and royalty payments.

Stagg will hold a press conference at the State Capitol today to talk more about this.