By Justin DiCharia
BATON ROUGE — Louisiana Supreme Court justices testified Tuesday that a $16 million cut to the Judiciary in its budget for the next fiscal year that begins in four weeks would cause the third branch of government to contract its drug court program that has helped curb the state’s percentage of repeat offenders.
By Jack Richards
BATON ROUGE — The House Education Committee Tuesday approved a bill to allow university students across the state to use student ID cards as identification for voting, perhaps as early this fall, although the bill doesn’t require it until 2019.
House Bill 940 by Rep. Randal Gaines, D-LaPlace, requires the ID cards to have a picture and a signature, making them valid under the state’s voter identification laws.
By Samuel Carter Karlin
BATON ROUGE — A report detailing the recent changes made to the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students — the state’s tuition-paying scholarship – warns that students could be paying thousands for tuition beyond what the scholarship covers in a few years.
The Cowen Institute of Tulane University, released its report, “The Future of TOPS,” Tuesday, offering potential pitfalls to TOPS reforms that have passed or look likely to pass this session.
Read the story in StMaryNow.com/The Banner Tribune & Daily Review
By Justin DiCharia
BATON ROUGE – In 1997, Louisiana House Speaker Hunt Downer ushered his lawmakers into the digital age. Bills, amendments, votes and fiscal notes became available on their individual screens with the click of a mouse.
Nineteen years later, the path toward a paperless Legislature has made headway, but hard copies still reign and taxpayers are left holding a six-figure invoice.
By Jack Richards
BATON ROUGE — Multi-state and larger corporations could pay millions more in corporate income tax under proposals the governor, legislators and the Department of Revenue are considering as Gov. John Bel Edwards prepares to call the Legislature into the second fiscal session of the year.
Read the story in The Shreveport Times
By Jack Richards
BATON ROUGE — An idea to take political expediency out of streamlining state bureaucracy took root Friday, ironically when both chambers of the Louisiana Legislature were on holiday.
Lake Charles Mayor Randy Roach presented a bill by Sen. Ronnie Johns, R-Lake Charles, at the weekly meeting of the Task Force on Structural Changes in the Budget and Tax Policy that would create a uniquely powerful commission independent of the Legislature.
By Justin DiCharia
BATON ROUGE — Currently, and since 1984, Louisiana spends about 20 cents a month on each one of its senior citizens, about $1,000 less than what the state spends on a prisoner in the same time period.
A handful of parish directors for the Councils on Aging testified before a Senate Finance Committee Friday on the effects that a $3.5 million cut to its supplemental funding will have on senior centers in different parts of the state.
By Justin DiCharia
BATON ROUGE – An attempt stop to underage drinking at parties on private property failed to draw majority of 53 votes in the 105-member House Thursday after opposition claimed the law would invade the privacy of Louisiana residents.
By Samuel Carter Karlin
BATON ROUGE — Calling the House version of the budget “unworkable, unconstitutional and ill-advised,” the Division of Administration Thursday asked the Senate Finance Committee to start over on the state’s omnibus appropriations bill.
By Samuel Carter Karlin
BATON ROUGE — A report detailing the recent changes made to the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students — the state’s tuition-paying scholarship — warns that students could be paying thousands for tuition beyond what the scholarship covers in a few years.
The Cowen Institute of Tulane University, released its report, “The Future of TOPS,” Tuesday, offering potential pitfalls to TOPS reforms that have passed or look likely to pass this session.
LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau 