Governor John Bel Edwards and Formosa Petrochemical Corporation announced an agreement to build a 9.4 billion dollar facility in St. James Parish. Once the ten year project is completed, officials say it will generate 1,200 full time jobs with an average pay of 84,500 dollars a year. St. James Parish President Timothy Roussell says it’s a big deal.
8,000 construction jobs are expected to be created while the facility is built.
Roussell says Formosa, who employs over 100,000 people worldwide, including several hundred at its other Louisiana facilities, is looking forward to working with and in the St. James community.
A proposal to increase fees for hunting and fishing licenses failed to get the necessary 70 votes to pass the House. The legislation would raise an additional six-point-eight million dollars a year for Wildlife and Fisheries, who says the increase is necessary to help sustain the department for years to come.
The vote on the bill was 54-27. It needs 70 votes to pass, because it’s a fee increase. The measure can be brought up again. Stonewall Representative Larry Bagley says the public is not opposing this legislation and hopes there’s another vote on the proposal
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15-year-old Seth Veillon was found dead by deputies in a mobile home Sunday in Paradis, and his mother is in critical condition. The child’s father is the suspected killer. Deputies found the boy, and his mother, both with multiple gunshot wounds. St. Charles Parish Sherriff’s spokesman Corporal James Grimaldi says they could not resuscitate the boy.
Lunches for Catholic and other non-public school students are threatened because of the House passed budget last week. The proposal, if eventually passed, would gut the program by 53 percent. The program is called school lunch salary supplements and it helps finance cafeteria operations and the cost of meals.