A bill to allow voters to decide if Slidell can have a riverboat casino now heads to the Senate floor for final passage after a 5-4 vote in Senate Finance. Brooke Thorington has more.
Cut 1 (30) “…I’m Brooke Thorington.”
_______________________________
Legislation dedicating a portion of the state sales tax that is set to expire in 2025 cleared a Senate committee 7-4 and is headed to the Senate floor. Matt Doyle has more.
____________________________
The first-ever comprehensive report of deaths behind bars in the state is released by Loyola Law. Brooke Thorington has more on what the study found among the 786 deaths from 2015 to 2019.
Cut 3 (30) “…I’m Brooke Thorington.”
____________________________________
A House bill to give St. Tammany voters the opportunity to decide if riverboat gambling should be allowed in the parish is heading to the Senate Floor. Sidell Representative Mary DuBuisson’s bill passed on a tight 5-4 vote in Senate Finance.
Slidell Pastor John Raymond spoke in opposition, stating his area of the parish would suffer the downside of gaming while other areas would profit.
Spectrum Gaming VP Matthew Roob says a 2018 Mississippi Gaming Commission study noted 22-percent of their Gulf Coast casino customers were from Louisiana. Gamblers that Roob says have the potential to roll the dice in-state if a casino is placed in St Tammany Parish.
But St. Tammany resident Linda Thornhill is skeptical about how gaming revenue is appropriated.
After the vote advancing the bill to the Senate floor, Baton Rouge Senator Bodi White reminded those who testified in opposition that it’s not a done deal yet.
The bill now heads to the Senate for final passage.
_______________________________
Senate Finance advances a bill that would dedicate point four-five percent of the state sales tax that is set to expire in 2025 permanently to infrastructure.
Port Allen Senator Rick Ward made an emotional appeal to the committee, saying he doesn’t want to see any more of his family move out of state because of Louisiana’s crumbling infrastructure.
The bill would generate an estimated 350 to 380 million dollars a year once it is fully phased in 2025. If passed it would be slowly phased in over three years starting in 2022.
The bill took flak from both the left and right before passing 7-4. Baton Rouge Democratic Senator Regina Barrow is concerned dedicating that money to infrastructure could create a budget deficit.
And Metairie Republican Senator Cameron Henry says he’s not too keen on permanently extending a tax that was supposed to be a temporary solution to the fiscal cliff…
The bill heads to the Senate floor and will need two-thirds support in both chambers, something that looks increasingly unlikely after the leader of the newly formed Conservative Caucus announced 41 members have pledged to vote against it.
__________________
Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker says the city is getting ready for a crush of visitors starting Friday as they host a “triple-header” of an NCAA Regional Tournament, a softball tournament, and the Peach Festival.
Ruston won the hosting rights for the regional after La Tech’s inspiring 40-18 season. Walker says the whole city is proud of what the team has been able to accomplish and will be packing the new “Love Shack”.
The NCAA Regional in Ruston opens Friday with NC State and Alabama playing at 1 PM and Tech and Rider starting at 6 PM.
The new sports complex hosting the regionals was built after a devastating tornado destroyed much of Tech’s campus in 2019. Walker says it was tragic, but the new sports complex was a silver lining.
On top of the regionals, 50 girls’ softball teams will travel into town and tourists from around the region will be enjoying the famed Peach Festival. Walker says hotels are packed, but if you can get a room…
The Marucci Classic softball tournament and Peach Festival begin Saturday.
_________________________
Loyola Law releases the first comprehensive report on inmate deaths in Louisiana. Law Professor Andrea (On-dree-ah) Armstrong says the study analyzed data on 786 known inmate fatalities from 2015 to 2019. She says medical death is the majority cause behind bars but yet when you look at preexisting conditions only half were diagnosed while incarcerated.
Inmate deaths include those in state prisons, parish jails, and detention centers. Armstrong says six percent of inmate deaths were suicide and where they occurred in parish facilities was surprising, almost half in solitary confinement.
Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the world and Armstrong says the state does not have any mandatory standards governing confinement conditions and no independent oversight of what happens behind bars.
Armstrong says the report is based on 70-percent of the facilities that they requested records from, which means 30-percent did not comply with the state’s public records law.
_____________________________________________
The Southern Jaguars baseball team is in Texas for the Austin regional that begins tomorrow. The Jags are the four-seed after winning the SWAC tournament and they join Texas, Arizona State, and Fairfield in Austin. Southern head coach Chris Crenshaw says they’ll need a full team effort.
Southern reached the postseason after taking down a very tough Jackson State team in the SWAC championship. Crenshaw says playing in the tournament was beneficial because they learned how to handle adversity.
Southern will take on number-one seed Texas at 1 p.m. on Friday.
________________________________________________
The LSU baseball team is in Oregon getting ready for the Eugene Regional in what could be Paul Mainieri’s final weekend as the coach of the Tigers. Mainieri says he’s not trying to think about how his career is ending
Cut 19 (18) “…Super Regional.”
Center fielder Giovanni Digiacomo re-aggravated his hamstring injury in the final regular-season series against Texas A-and-M. Mainieri says Gio has been practicing and he expects he’ll get the start on Friday night