10:30 LRN Newscast Jun 21

Senate Finance Chairman Bodi White says it was a big mistake when lawmakers rushed to approve a budget on the final day of the session. It resulted in a 100-million dollar cut to the Louisiana Department of Health at a time when the state has a surplus. White says if he had to do it again, he wouldn’t have brought the budget bill up for a vote in the waning minutes of the session…

Cut 11 (04)  “…special session.”

 

LDH tells lawmakers the cut will result in a loss of services for Medicaid recipients and a loss of funding for some nursing homes, a graduate medical education program, and mobile cancer screenings.

Franklinton Senator Beth Mizell is alarmed to see a cut in funding to Our Lady of Angels Hospital in Bogalusa…

Cut 13 (11) “…happen”  

White is calling on the governor to use his line-item authority and remove the cut from the budget so funding could be restored to L-D-H.

State Treasurer John Schroder is calling on the Louisiana Cash Management Review Board to develop a plan for all state agencies to accept electronic payment options like PayPal and Venmo.

Cut 6 (10)  “…the taxpayer.”

By law, the state treasurer can make the electronic payment process available to state agencies but he can’t require them to use it.

According to CreditCards-dot-com Louisiana has the third highest credit card debt in the country. CreditCards-dot-com Senior Industry Analyst Ted Rossman says using a personal loan as a form of debt consolidation and working with a reputable nonprofit credit counseling agency can help make payments manageable. He also suggests a zero percent balance transfer credit card.

Cut 16 (11) “…tremendous savings.”