tax exemptions
April 23, 2018
Members of the Senate Finance Committee met Sunday to review the Draconian budget bill approved last week by the House. Some, like Chairman Eric Lafleur of Ville Platte, were horrified by the cuts to health care and graduate medical education.
Number of the Day
66,099 - Number of employees on the state payroll as of December 2017, down from 100,473 in Fiscal Year 2008. Nationwide, the state and local public sector workforce is the smallest it’s been since 1967 as a share of the civilian American civilian workforce. (Source: Division of Administration and The New York Times)March 19, 2018
Louisiana’s chronic refusal to address its structural budget deficit is a likely reason medical school graduates are leaving the state at higher rates than just a few years ago. As the AP’s Melinda Deslatte reports, last week was when newly minted doctors found out where they will “match” with post-graduate residency programs.
Number of the Day
$53.3 million - Annual payments Louisiana will receive from BP over the next 15 years for economic damages associated with the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Legislation filed for the current session would allow the money to be spent on general operations instead of squirreled away in special funds (Source: Associated Press)October 23, 2017
Louisiana gives away more money through corporate tax exemptions and credits than it collects from corporations in income taxes. That much has been known for years.
Number of the Day
79,379 - Louisianans who buy health coverage on the individual marketplace and benefit from federal cost-sharing reductions (Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)August 28, 2017
How bad is the financial crunch at Louisiana's colleges and universities? So bad that at Nicholls State University, appropriations from the state are no longer enough to cover all "mandated" costs - money that goes back to the state to pay for pensions, security, health benefits and the like.