PART VI-A RAPID RESPONSE FUND

§2361. Rapid Response Fund

            A.(1) The Rapid Response Fund, hereinafter referred to as the "fund", is hereby created as a special fund within the state treasury.

            (2) Beginning July 1, 2005, the state treasurer is directed to deposit into the fund at the beginning of each fiscal year ten million dollars. The legislature may appropriate additional monies to the fund notwithstanding the balance in the fund.

            B.(1) All unexpended and unencumbered monies in the fund at the end of the fiscal year shall remain in the fund. Monies in the fund shall be invested by the treasurer in the same manner as those in the state general fund, and any interest earned on the investment of monies in the fund shall be credited to the fund.

            (2) Monies in the fund shall be available for appropriation to the Department of Economic Development, hereinafter referred to as the "department". Such appropriations shall be used by the secretary of the department for immediate funding of all or a portion of economic development projects which may be necessary in order to successfully secure the creation or retention of jobs by a business entity under such circumstances as may be determined by the secretary and the governor.

            (3) The secretary shall report to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget twice yearly, on the first day of October and the first day of April, with respect to all actual expenditures of monies appropriated from the fund. The reports shall be available electronically, and the secretary shall include in these reports any other information which the committee may require with respect to use of monies appropriated from the fund, including but not limited to the following information on each economic development project which receives funding:

            (a) Performance targets.

            (b) Outcomes.

            (c) Numbers of jobs created and retained.

            (d) Overall payroll generated.

            (4) The department shall make available upon request the economic impact analysis on an economic development project which receives monies from the fund.

            C. At the same time as the secretary submits to the official journal for the state a notice containing general information regarding active negotiations for an economic development project which is eligible for funding from the fund, which active negotiations the secretary desires to keep confidential as provided in R.S. 44:22, upon request by a member of the legislature in whose legislative district a project is located, the secretary may provide information regarding the project if the member submits his signature under oath that all information shall remain confidential and privileged.

            Acts 2005, No. 398, §1, eff. July 1, 2005; Acts 2010, No. 368, §1; Acts 2010, No. 633, §3, eff. July 1, 2010; Acts 2015, No. 121, §5, eff. July 1, 2015.