Pew Charitable Trusts
March 23, 2018
Using one-time money to pay for long term, ongoing expenses is not a sustainable way to run a household, let alone a state budget. But that’s exactly what House GOP leader Lance Harris is proposing as a fix for Louisiana’s fiscal cliff.
Number of the Day
$70 million - Amount the state has cut its Child Care Assistance Program since 2008. Legislation approved by the House Education committee on Thursday would restore $10 million in funding for the program. (Source: The Daily Advertiser)March 21, 2018
Louisiana is one of only two states - Oregon is the other - that do not require a unanimous jury verdict for felony convictions. It’s one of the reasons the Pelican State leads the nation, and the world, in incarceration.
Number of the Day
32,814 - Projected number of prisoners in Louisiana in 2027 if all criminal justice reforms are left in place, a 10 percent decrease in the projected prison population absent reform. (Source: The Pew Trusts)December 14, 2017
Gov. John Bel Edwards has spent months talking to legislators and business groups around the state, trying to develop collaborative solutions to the $1.5 billion budget shortfall the state faces in 2018.
Number of the Day
$10.6 million - Amount of property tax revenue lost by Orleans Parish in 2017 due to the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program, which local governments now have authority to limit. (Source: Nola.com/The Times Picayune reporting on a Together Louisiana analysis)December 4, 2017
The massive tax overhaul that cleared the U.S. Senate just before 2 a.m. EST Saturday - after just a few hours of cursory review - would add at least $1 trillion to federal budget deficits and represents a major shift of wealth from low and moderate-income working families to the most powerful people and corporations.