State Budget Out Of Red, Several Hundred Million In Black

There's plenty of money in the till of state government right now.

A report from NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune says Louisiana appears to have a budget surplus in the neighborhood of $300 million, but it's not clear why.

And, it's not entirely clear how the extra money will be distributed, except that about a third of it will go into the state's "rainy day fund" and help pay down state employee retirement debt.

It was earlier in the year that lawmakers refused to let a temporary penny increase in the state sales tax expire, keeping almost a half-cent of it to help offset a projected half-billion-dollar deficit.