Louisiana state revenue is up

...believe it or not! Read here in the New York Times for the story.

The headline is stunning: while everyone expected Louisiana to be financially ruined by Katrina, the state government expects to realize a windfall at the end of the current fiscal year (which ends Friday).

The reason? Sales tax revenue is up $500 million over projections, which the article attributes to higher oil and gas prices (and royalties), spending on gambling by relief workers and insurance adjusters, and spending on replacement purchases by those displaced by Katrina.

Keep reading the article, however, and you learn that income taxes and property taxes are still expected to be far below the levels projected a year ago. And that could still be a huge problem, especially for parish and local governments.

It would seem that this initial, surprising bit of good news may ultimately prove distracting from the ongoing devastation wrought by last year's storms.