BATON ROUGE — Gov. Jeff Landry and his administration presented findings on the Fiscal Responsibility Program designed to "eliminate wasteful spending and to identify areas to improve government efficiency," naming a new Inspector General and expressing their goal to see state income tax eliminated in Louisiana.

Landry said that the Louisiana Department of Government Efficiency — LADOGE — earned the state $999.5 million in annual savings. In 2024, Landy said their first budget called for a $3.3 billion reduction in spending from the previous budget, and the state realized a final reduction of around $2 billion.

Landry and Fiscal Responsibility Czar Steve Orlando were joined by members of his cabinet and other officials to discuss the progress of the fiscal responsibility program, which Landry asked to be created in 2024.

Speaker of the House Phillip DeVillier said that after meeting with Orlando, he wanted to work with the administration to reform the Office of the Inspector General to work more closely with the Legislative Auditor's Office to assess where money is spent, how to improve redundancies and pass these recommendations along to the legislature. 

During the news conference discussing the administration's efforts, Angele Davis, a former Commissioner of Administration under Gov. Bobby Jindal, was appointed to lead the inspector general's office, a position that holds a six-year term. Landry noted that the office will be transformed to focus on optimization and efficiency in state government.

"No one goes in and says, 'Are you spending (this money) wisely and efficiently? Are you optimizing that money?'," Landry said. 

Landry said that Davis' title should also include Chief Integrity Officer. 

Louisiana Secretary of Health Bruce Greenstein said that a large portion of savings came through the unenrollment of ineligible SNAP recipients, as well as eliminating fraud, waste and abuse from other LDH programs.

"Those people are greedy people who are taking from the needy people," Landry said about removing ineligible SNAP recipients. "Every dollar that they take stretches the ability of those programs to take care of the people that need those services the most." 

According to data provided by Landry's office, $14.9 million was saved from removing ineligible SNAP recipients. 

Medicaid eligibility changes accounted for a large chunk of the nearly $1 billion in savings. The data provided by Landry's office said that $285.5 million was saved by improving "Medicaid eligibility determination processes to identify and remove ineligible recipients."

Contract renegotiations and cancellations made up $206.4 million in the savings. 

Process efficiency and workplace optimization made up a bulk of the savings — $407.6 million. According to Landry's office, this consists of "reorganization and consolidation to create savings while improving efficiency."

Secretary for the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services Rebecca Harris said that "public dollars are being spent more responsibly," saying that her department has implemented a second shift with more investigators to make sure that reports are assessed without delay, allowing them to reduce the department's average caseload. 

"We're not going to stop finding efficiencies and improving the services that we provide to our citizens in this state," he said. "It is only through continuing to change the culture that we can lower the tax burden on our citizens."

Watch Landry's news conference: