Senate Finance approves a 29-billion dollar budget plan for next fiscal year. It fully funds TOPS and it calls for more state spending than what the House proposed. So colleges, prisons and the department of children and family services will not see cuts. Governor John Bel Edwards says the Senate’s version of the budget makes responsible cuts to the Department of Health. A conference committee will be needed to iron out differences between the House and Senate.

Baton Rouge Representative Franklin Foil halts his effort to make it harder for high school students to get the TOPS scholarship. Foil told Senate Education a task force will be formed to examine TOPS and he’ll wait to see their findings…
Cut 15 (09) “that reason”
Foil’s bill would have raised the minimum high school GPA from 2.50 to 2.75.

Shreveport Representative Alan Seabaugh says Louisiana can pay for better roads if it fired three-thousand state transportation workers. DOTD employs 47-hundred. Seabaugh says that would free up a couple hundred million dollars and the state agency wouldn’t even notice the employee reduction.
Cut 5 (09) “do the job” (2x)
But Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson says that’s not a practical solution to fund transportation infrastructure. He says all of the employees he was referring to are people that perform routine maintenance and road closures during disasters.
Cut 6 (08) “the actual work”
Seabaugh’s comments came during discussion of a proposed gasoline tax hike that died on the House floor.