Report finds raising minimum wage could shrink food stamp rolls
Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour could save taxpayers $46 billion over 10 years, according to a new report by the Center for American Progress. “Our results imply that the effects of the Harkin-Miller proposal on wage increases would reduce SNAP enrollments by between 6.5 percent and 9.2 percent (3.3 million to 3.8 million persons). The total anticipated annual decrease in program expenditures is nearly $4.6 billion, or about 6 percent of current SNAP program expenditures.” Download the full report here.

Tax revenue still lags in Louisiana
State tax revenues across the country finally rose above the level of late 2008, according to new data from the Pew Charitable Trust, which found that states collected an average of $1.05 in the second quarter of 2013 compared to the third quarter of 2008, just before the Great Recession. The bad news? Louisiana is one of just four states that are taking in less revenue than in 2008. “Louisiana’s tax revenue collections are down 20 percent in the second quarter of 2013 from where they were in the third quarter of 2008,” Nola.com reports. The other states are Florida, Alaska, New Mexico and Wyoming.

One reason Louisiana fares poorly is because the state’s economy was overheating in mid-2008, with record-high oil prices and post-hurricane reconstruction dollars generating record state revenues and producing billion-dollar surpluses.

Two more years granted to some healthcare plans
Thanks to a new rule, people will be able to keep insurance plans that do not meet standards set by the Affordable Care Act for an additional 2 years. “The administration also extended Obamacare’s open enrollment for next year by a month — it now will run from Nov. 15, 2014, until Feb. 15, 2015. And it is giving insurers additional financial help to offset the costs of benefits claims from new ACA enrollees, with the goal of keeping Obamacare premiums ‘affordable’ in coming years, officials said.”

Payday rate cap up for debate next this session
The Associated Press looks at the effort to cap interest rates on payday loans that are being pushed by two legislators and backed by a broad-based coalition of groups that represent the poor and elderly. Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, and Rep. Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, have introduced bills that would cap the interest that payday lenders can charge at 36 percent. Jewel Constance, who works for AARP Louisiana as a volunteer recruiter and organizer, said she paid about $400 in fees to pay off six payday loans averaging more than $300 each that she took out over three months in 2006 and 2007 when she was a college student. Constance, 29, said she took out the first loan to pay her rent, then realized she couldn’t repay the loan and its fee in two weeks, so she took out another loan and then another to pay off the prior loans. “At the time it may have seemed small in amount, but I didn’t realize how much it impacted my paycheck,” she said. “It put me in a worse position than I started in. It cascaded.”

To learn more about the harmful effects of payday lending in Louisiana, check out our Payday Lending page.

“Funds sweep” ruling will not be appealed
The Legislature has decided not to appeal  a district court’s ruling that said it is unconstitutional to sweep money from retirement funds to balance the budget.  The $3.7 million that was swept from a probation and parole officers’ retirement fund will not have to be repaid unless legislation is passed this session to restore the funds.