Tax reform is expected to be a big topic at the legislative session which got underway last week. In his address to lawmakers to open the session, Governor Edwards called on revenue-neutral tax reforms. He says since 2016 they’ve made great strides stabilizing the budget and can’t go back to running deficits…
cut 11 (08) “….positive”
Republican legislative leaders are looking at lower income tax rates in exchange for a reduction in tax break programs.

There’s a bill in the legislative session that would bar transgender athletes from participating in girls or women’s sports at public schools. Political analyst Clancy Dubos says there’s a chance the legislation will pass,,,
cut 13 (08) “…in Louisiana’
The NCAA has threatened to remove events from states that pass this legislation. New Orleans is set to host the men’s Final Four next year.

The Louisiana Department of Education is launching a new campaign to boost the state’s shockingly poor levels of literacy among young students. Right now only half of the third-graders are reading on or above their grade level. Superintendent Cade Brumley says that number has been declining for several years.
Cut 4 (09)“…successful”
The state is launching a new series of training programs for teachers and administrative staff in elementary and middle grades to boost literacy rates.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says a rehabbed brown pelican that was found covered in oil near Queen Bess Island in 2010 following the BP spill, and then released in Georgia, has found its way back to the Bayou State. LDWF Biologist Casey Wright says this is the first pelican released from the Coast Guard Station in Brunswick to return home.
Cut 7 (12) “…I saw it.”
Wright says brown pelicans are hard-wired genetically to return to their birth colony to breed, even when they move long distances.