The deliberations over next year’s state budget formally began Tuesday in the House Appropriations Committee, and major disagreements have already emerged between Chairman Cameron Henry and Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration. The two sides disagree on whether the Legislature should pass a ‘doomsday’ budget during the regular session, with at least $700 million in cuts, or if they should wait until a special session when lawmakers will have another chance to renew expiring taxes. Elizabeth Crisp reports for The Advocate:

College students could opt to head to out-of-state amid uncertainty over Taylor Opportunity Program for Students scholarships and funding that ensures class availability and quality professors. “(Other colleges are) like buzzards circling around Louisiana waiting to swoop in on the carcasses we leave behind,” Dardenne said. And workers across the state – both in the public and some related private sector jobs – could start receiving layoff notices as early as next month to meet required timelines ahead of the July 1 start of the next fiscal year.

The companies that operate Louisiana’s public-private partnership hospitals in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Lake Charles have notified the state that they will walk away from their contracts if the final budget includes the cuts outlined in Edwards’ executive budget. Whether or not the hospital funding is restored in a June special session, the operator of University Medical Center in New Orleans will be required by law to issue notices on May 1 to its 2,400 employee of their intent to discontinue operations. This would also bring the medical education campus to a screeching halt. Julia O’Donoghue of The Times-Picayune | Nola.com writes:

If LCMC isn’t operating the hospital, it would no longer provide about $160 million in funding for medical education through LSU Health Sciences Center and Tulane University either. This money mostly comes in the form of faculty and medical resident salaries. It’s unclear where medical and nursing students would train after July if LCMC walked away because there would be no funding for professors, other supervisors and residents at the hospital. It’s a bad week for uncertainty about Louisiana’s medical training institutions. Friday is national “match day,” when medical students find out where they will be doing their medical residencies. Those who end up “matching” with University Medical Center might be uncertain about whether the program will be funded next year, Masterton said.

Impact of TOPS uncertainty

Spring is a busy time for high school seniors preparing to leave the nest. Many are making college decisions this month. Devon Sanders and Joby Richard of LSU Manship School News Service asked whether the looming budget issues and potential cuts to TOPS are encouraging them to look outside the state for postsecondary education? The answer, at least anecdotally, seems to be yes:

Shelly Choppin said her daughter Paige did not have “a legitimate argument” for looking at universities outside the state until the collapse of the special legislative session last week created new worries about TOPS scholarships. Now, the high school senior will be enrolling at Ole Miss this fall, breaking her family’s long-standing legacy at LSU. Paige’s great-grandfather, Arthur Richard Choppin, was dean of the College of Physics and Chemistry from 1944 to 1968, and an LSU chemistry building bears his name.

Racial wealth disparities on the menu

New Orleans chef Tunde Wey is serving up more than food at his lunch counter at the Roux Carre market in New Orleans. Wey is educating his customers on racial wealth disparities and conducting a social experiment. When black customers visit his counter, they’re given a price of $12, but when white customers order the same food, the cost is $30. This is explained to each customer when they approach the counter. So far, the results have been interesting. Maura Judkis at The Washington Post explains:

If they’re white, he’ll tell them they can either pay $12, or they can pay $30 — two and a half times the base price, which reflects the wealth disparity in New Orleans. He tells them the profits will be redistributed to people of color, but not as charity — just to any minority customers of his who want it, regardless of their income or circumstance. Initially, he expected that few white people would pay the $30. “I thought, if given the chance to voluntarily give up privilege, folks would not because it is not in their interest,” he said. But he was wrong: So far, more than 80 percent of white customers have opted to pay the higher price, and Wey realized that he had been underestimating the power of social pressure.

Number of the Day

$25,806 – The median income among African American households in New Orleans, compared to $64,377 for white households. (Source: The Washington Post)