By MELINDA DESLATTE
Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The leader of the House budget committee says Gov. Bobby Jindal's proposal for using a $143 million surplus violates the law and an agreement reached with the House earlier this year to end a budget stalemate.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Fannin made his comments Friday as lawmakers received a revised estimate of how much was left unspent when the books were closed on the last fiscal year.
The Jindal administration wants to use the leftover cash to help fill a $94 million gap in Louisiana's Medicaid program, to stop a new round of cuts on health care services.
Fannin says that conflicts with a bill he sponsored earlier this year requiring that surplus funding up to $205 million be used to replenish the state's "rainy day" fund.
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