State Sells $120 Million in Bonds

              State sells $120 million in bonds
By JOHN M. HILL
Gannett News Service
BATON ROUGE - The state Bond
Commission Tuesday sold $120 million in
state bonds to finance more than 40
construction projects around the state.
Gov. David Treen, who usually sends a
proxy to represent him on the com-mission,
made a rare appearance to urge
the commission to accept the low bid of
9.496 percent interest.
The low bid was submitted by a syndi-cate
headed by Citibank, First Boston
Corp. and Howard Weil Labouisse
Friedrichs Inc.
Treen noted the interest is more than
one point less than the 10.6 percent the
commission had to pay on a $197 million
bond issue in June
Almost half the money raised from
Tuesday's bond sale will go to build
projects in the New Orleans area: $23
million for relocation of U.S. 90 between
Morgan City and Houma, $20 million for
construction of the new Mississippi River
bridge at New Orleans, and $10 million
for the West Bank Expressway in Jef-ferson
and Orleans parishes.
The governor made a thinly veiled
pitch for an additional revenue source,
noting those three projects alone will cost
more than $750 million when completed.
The governor said the state has tre-mendous
capital needs and faces further
borrowing. "Our needs are great and we
must get on with it," he said.
Last summer, Treen proposed a $450
million oil and gas transportation tax —
the Coastal Wetlands Environmental
Levy — to pay for capital construction,
but the oil and gas industry easily de-feated
the tax.
The following is a list of area projects
which will be funded through the bond
sale:
• Construction of a segment of
Shreveport's Inner Loop Expressway be-tween
Interstate 20 and Jewella Avenue,
$6.9 million.
• Completion of planning and start-up
construction costs for the new E. A.
Conway Hospital building at Monroe, $2.5
million.
• Renovations to the burn and trauma'
unit at Louisiana State University Medi-cal
Center-Shreveport, $1.4 million, as
well as renovations to the center's
dietary unit, $960,000.
• Planning for improvements to
streets, parking lots, utilities, drainage
and lighting at Grambling State Univer-sity,
Lincoln Parish, $315,000.
• Construction of the forestry, wildlife
and plant science complex at Louisiana
Tech University, Ruston, $2 million
• Further construction at the North-western
School of Nursing at Shreveport,
$1 million, and completion of the utilities
master plan at Northwestern's main
campus at Natchitoches, $250,000.
• Planning for renovations at the
Northwestern buildings to be used by the
new Louisiana School for the Gifted and
Talented, a residential prep school at
Natchitoches, $750,000.