Governor John Bel Edwards presented his “dooms-day” budget to lawmakers this morning, which reflected what one-billion-dollars in cuts would look like. It includes an 80% reduction in TOPS funding, if lawmakers can’t agree on a long-term tax reform plan. Republican Slidell Senator Sharon Hewitt believes the administration can do better than these recommendations…:
Cut 6 (10) “our expenses”
Edwards challenged legislative leaders to publicly present a plan of their own…:
Cut 5 (12) “to cut”
The governor proposed a tax reform plan to cover 994-million dollars of the budget gap.

Crawfish season in Louisiana may be slightly delayed this year thanks to last week’s arctic blast, but the good news is that they did survive. Dr. Greg Lutz with the LSU Ag-Center says when it gets extremely cold, crawfish just sit there and can’t move even if they wanted to…:
CUT 12 (12) “walking into the traps”
Lutz says crawfish will be available for Mardi Gras, just not as plentiful and probably a little more expensive than normal.

Gas prices have seen a big jump throughout the nation and the state over the past few weeks. The current average in Louisiana is $2.36 a gallon, which is up 6 cents from the prior week.