And he thinks legislators returning to Baton Rouge for an attempt to override the veto would be a futile effort.
The $110,000 in tennis court money is among $16 million in projects the governor whacked from the $29.9 billion state budget because he thought they were not in the best interest of the state.
The veto was one among 250 projects falling to Jindal’s budget scissors.
They ranged in kind from grants to the Family Foundation of Southwest Louisiana ($1.5 million) and other organizations to dog parks and festivals.
Jindal had earlier said he would veto any non-governmental organization allocations attached by legislators to the budget.
The tennis courts was not a NGO. It was an official request for funding from the Eunice city government, but fell to Jindal’s veto nevertheless, along with a number of other recreation projects, such as $800,000 for a baseball/recreational center in Ville Platte.
The city wants to add two courts at Buddy Fay Tennis Complex at the Fairgrounds. Doing so would provide more access to the growing number of players in the city and would allow Eunice High and St. Edmund High to host prep post-season tournaments.
Each representative was earmarked $50,000 by the House Appropriation Committee for local projects. Guillory said Sen. Eric LaFleur, in whose district the courts are located, agreed to add the $60,000 earmarked for each senator (there are 66 fewer of them) to Guillory’s funds to reach the estimated $110,000 needed for the tennis court project.
“I understand his grouping the rec projects together, and I understand it is his right to veto,” Guillory said.
“But I have asked the governor for the opportunity to use the $50,000 for something else in my district, something that he would sign off on,” he said.
Guillory said a Jindal spokesman had indicated the plan was to return the entire $16 million to the General Fund.
“If that happens, nobody will really know what became of it,” he said.
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