Louisiana’s Congressional delegation sent a letter to FEMA asking for a flood relief cost-share reduction for the March and August historic floods. Under the current disaster funding level, the state and local governments will pay 25 percent of costs and the government 75 percent. Congressman Ralph Abraham of Richland Parish says 49 parishes were declared federal disaster areas at some point this year…:
CUT 9 (08) “very long”
He says they are asking the feds to cover 90% of costs instead of 75%.

According to the governor’s office, about 6300 applications have been put in for the Louisiana Shelter at Home Program. Registration opened Monday for flood victims to register to receive up to $15,000 for home repairs that would make a space livable while the rest of the house is rebuilt. The site to register is shelterathome.la.gov.

The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Depression Nine is expected to become a tropical storm today in the Gulf of Mexico, as it moves away from Cuba on a westward path. They say the system will make a turn back toward Florida over the next two days where it is expected to make landfall — probably on Thursday. TD9 is virtually no threat to Louisiana or the central Gulf Coast according to forecasters.

According to the personal finance website Kiplinger, Louisiana is the sixth most tax-friendly state in the US. Spokeswoman Sandra Block says Louisiana’s gas tax is 10-cents below the national average, and the income tax rate is about 3%. She says the state did not do well in the sales tax category, which is now up to 5-cents…:
cut 11 (09) “sales tax”
Wyoming came in first in the study as the most tax-friendly state, and California came in last.