Every Louisiana resident, regardless of their race, wealth or ZIP code, deserves access to nutritious food, a quality, affordable education and the ability to see a doctor when they get sick. For families that have trouble affording these necessities, government safety-net programs can provide a helping hand and help ensure that everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential.  

To promote a better understanding of how these programs affect each community in Louisiana, the Louisiana Budget Project has updated its fact sheets for every state House and Senate district. The fact sheets include important information about safety net programs like Medicaid, tax credits that help low-income workers and educational scholarships that make college or technical training more affordable. 

“We created these fact sheets to help policymakers, and the public, gain a better understanding of their own communities – and to remind them that every town includes people who sometimes need a hand to get ahead or stay afloat,” LBP executive director Jan Moller said. 

The fact sheets are intended for use by state policymakers, the news media, advocates and ordinary citizens and are drawn from state and national data sources, with the intention of creating easy access to district-level information during legislative and administrative decision-making processes.

For citizens who will be following the upcoming redrawing of political districts, the fact sheets provide information about income, education levels and racial breakdown of each current district, and the use of various federal and state programs such as TOPS, GO Grants and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. 

Legislators face important decisions this spring over how best to invest a sizable state surplus and leftover pandemic relief dollars.

“Lawmakers cannot squander this once-in-a generation opportunity to make much-needed and long-overdue investments in their constituents,” Moller said. “We hope these fact sheets provide them with the knowledge needed to improve the lives of the people who elected them.”