With your Louisiana Radio Network Legislative Report, I’m Matt Doyle
Legislative gridlock has taken over the special session after a week of haggling has left lawmakers with no obvious route to plugging the one billion dollar budget gap, commonly known as the fiscal cliff that threatens to wreck programs like TOPS.
One of the avenues the GOP was pursuing to reduce state spending and plug the gap was Medicaid reform. A bill was introduced that would add work requirements to the program, and Health and Welfare Committee held a hearing where Opelousas’s Dustin Miller challenged West Monroe’s Frank Hoffman on the justness of the changes.
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Hoffman ended up deferring the bill. A Medicaid copay bill was also differed.
LRN
In the wake of the Florida school shooting that left 17 dead, Chalmette Representative Raymond Garafalo is planning to reintroduce a bill in the regular session that would allow school educators to carry weapons on campus if they have proper training. In the wake of recent threats and attacks, Garafalo says allowing guns in the classroom may prevent future mass school shootings…
Garafalo says faculty who choose to voluntarily carry, would be trained appropriately.
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And former state senator and Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler is being sued for allegations of sexual harassment involving his former Executive Secretary Dawn Ross. The suit alleges a pattern of repeated harassment, and Ross’s attorney Jill Crafts says that includes an explicitly worded Valentine’s letter from the Secretary.
Louisiana Radio Network