Governor John Bel Edwards unveiled the plan to balance this year’s budget, and fill the $70 million dollar hole that must be done by June 30th. Michelle Southern reports…:
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The state may have to give up control of its museums because of budget concerns in Louisiana. Halen Doughty has more…
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Crawfish-lovers can expect to find a good batch of mudbugs this Easter weekend. That’s according to David Savoy, president of the Louisiana Crawfish Farmers Association, who says they should be able to meet the demand
Savoy says as the weather has warmed up, the crawfish have gotten bigger in the last few weeks, but consumers will not get break on prices. He says it doesn’t make sense to him that the cost to harvest crawfish is down from a year ago, but consumers are still paying the same prices as they did in 2015…
Savoy says the untold story of this crawfish season is that the farmers are not making as much money for their catch as they did last year. He says someone has to be making money, because customers haven’t seen a break for what they are paying…
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Governor John Bel Edwards unveiled the plan to balance this year’s budget, and said the $70 million dollar hole will be filled within the state Department of Health and Hospitals. Edwards said he could not in good conscious make any more reductions to higher ed…:
Lawmakers did not fully fill the deficit in the special session, so it was left to the Edwards’ Administration to pull the state out of the red before June 30th. Edwards says $40 million dollars in the cuts to DHH are from less than expected Medicaid spending…:
Edwards says the other $30 million dollars will be cut to the private-public partnership hospitals. He says DHH was better positioned to absorb these cuts, but it still wasn’t an easy thing to do…:
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Louisiana may have to relinquish control of state museums over to local agencies due to money concerns. Secretary of State Tom Schedler says his budget has taken a massive hit amid the fiscal crisis in the state.
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Schedler says he usually spends about $3.5 million on museums, but he only has $1.5 million allotted for this year, which he says is only enough to run the Old State Capitol. Schedler says he has already turned over four museums back to local governments. He says tough decisions are coming regarding the rest.
Schedler says budget concerns like this have been an issue for several years. He says in the past, the legislature always found more money, but he doesn’t think that will be the case this time. He says he hopes they are able to keep all of the museums in the state open.
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Louisiana Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain is urging those affected by the recent flooding to take precautions to prevent termites during clean-up and remodeling. Strain says when you have flooding you can have a breakdown of a termite barrier. He says a little water damage can also cause an initial onset of terminates.
Strain says infected wood must be burned on site or moved to an approved landfill. He says also beware of spreading termites when moving wood.
Strain says in the first few weeks after flooding there may be a decrease in termites but once the water is gone termites that remain tend to come back more prevalent than before.