A record setting amount of money was returned to a North Louisiana resident as part of the state’s Unclaimed Property Program. Jeff Palermo has the story.
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The state is warning that unless more revenue is approved in the special session, the food stamps program will shut down. Matt Doyle has more.
Cut 6 (09) “…related to financial loss”
Edmonds says that families that have a new baby via natural delivery have maternity leave, but it’s important that adopting families have a similar opportunity to bond with a child.
Cut 7 (10) “…for those families”
The Baton Rouge Republican says he wanted to see the burden put on families eased by the new legislation.
cut 8 (10) “…has been removed.”
The change also applies to school social workers and school psychologists.
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More tech jobs are coming to Louisiana with today’s announcement that Austin-based Accruent will open an office in New Orleans. Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Don Pierson says the tech center is expected to bring in 350 jobs into the Big Easy.
Cut 9 (10) “…multiplier effect with this.”
Accruent is already hiring and they plan to be fully staffed by 2020. Pierson says Accruent’s main focus of the company is digital integration in real estate.
Colleges in the area are partnering with the company in training for these jobs. Pierson says It’s the state’s goal to create a digital media and software development sector.
Cut 11 (13) “…high paying jobs”
Accruent is headquartered in Austin, Texas and serves a wide range of industries in more than 150 countries around the world.
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The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services warns that unless more funding is approved in the special session, that the food stamps program will be shut down. The money on SNAP cards comes from the feds, but the state has to foot much of the administrative bill, and the current budget leaves no money for it. Secretary Marketa Walters says one in five Louisianans are at risk of going hungry.
The department is currently set for 34 million dollars in cuts, which the Secretary says would have to be absorbed by SNAP administrators because the only other services that could be cut would shut down child welfare services.
Walters says 64 percent of people who receive SNAP benefits are either children, disabled, or the elderly, with another 27 percent being the working poor who a earn paycheck that’s not enough to feed their families. She says the loss of this program would be a disaster.
The feds currently pump 1.4 billion dollars in federal SNAP dollars into the state every year, which Walters says ends up being spent at one of 4,500 businesses like grocery stores and gas stations. The Secretary says that kind of economic loss would ripple throughout Louisiana’s economy.