Bob Marshall Archives - Louisiana Budget Project

June 11, 2019

The people we tax into poverty

People across the political spectrum agree that our tax system shouldn’t push people into poverty. But while federal tax policy does a reasonably effective job at protecting low-income people who are elderly or have children, it fails to extend the same protections to childless, working-age adults.… Read more...

October 10, 2018

Climate change is a crisis for Louisiana

For years, scientists and policymakers have used a temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels as a target for the maximum rise in the global climate that Earth can sustain while limiting the catastrophic effects of climate change to the environment and to human populations.

Number of the Day

$18,142 - Average annual premium for a family health plan for the bottom 90 percent of income earners in 2016, including both employer and employee contributions. In 2016, health care premiums totaled 51.7 percent of average earnings for the bottom 90 percent, a 26.1 point increase over 1999. (Source: Economic Policy Institute)

October 9, 2017

Training tomorrow’s workers

Louisiana is very generous when it comes to providing college scholarships to traditional students who pursue four-year degrees directly from high school. But it is considerably less generous for everyone else - especially non-traditional students, people from low-income backgrounds and students seeking two-year associate degrees or skills training.

Number of the Day

$723.67 - Average weekly wages for production and “non-supervisory” workers in 2016 - which is 2 percent lower than in 1972, in inflation-adjusted dollars. (Source: EPI via The New York Times)