Governor John Bel Edwards will lay out his plans on tackling the fiscal cliff when he speaks to a joint session of the legislature at 5: 00 today. Edwards called a special session to address a one-billion dollar budget deficit as a temporary one-cent sales tax expires on June 30th. Political pollster Bernie Pinsonat says Pinsonat says the governor will have difficulty getting tax bills passed out of the House, but might be able to work out a deal with the Senate…
The Senate Democratic Caucus offers a solution on solving the one-billion dollar shortfall. Chairman Troy Carter proposes compressing income tax brackets, removing sales tax exemptions that benefit some businesses and expand the sales tax base, so certain services are taxed…
But anti-tax critics say proposal would raise income taxes on the middle class.
LRN
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At least three Louisiana schools have received social media threats, with Ville Platte under lockdown due to one received this morning. Dutchtown and Ponchatoula High Schools were threatened in social media over the weekend. State Police Major Doug Cain says If a threat against a school is found to be false, Cain says they will investigate and if they find the person who made it, there will be consequences…
Officials say the Dutchtown threat was made by a former student living in another state.
And a 17-year-old girl was arrested in relation to the situation in Tangipahoa Parish. She was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor after posting a snapchat video that claimed an incident was going to occur at a Tangipahoa school.
In a separate incident, 18-year-old Troy Webber of Amite was arrested after making a threat this weekend that he was going to shoot his fellow students when returning to school today. Webber has been charged with Terrorizing.