Two State Police Troopers and two former troopers are on the other side of the law as they’ve been arrested on allegations they received overtime pay for hours they never worked. Matt Doyle has more…
University Hospital and Clinics in Lafayette has notified 770 employees that they could be laid off, and the facility shut down under proposed spending plans that slashes state funding for public-private partnership hospitals. Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne says the public-private system was created after Charity Hospitals were dismantled under the Jindal Administration, and focus on covering the underinsured.
House GOP Chairman Lance Harris is defending the House backed budget that funds education, but slashes healthcare, ahead of a special session that is expected to start mid may. The budget has come under fire for threatening to eliminate public-private partnership hospitals and residency programs. The Alexandria Republican anticipates a May 18th special session being called by the governor to fill the 648 million dollar budget gap reflected in the House budget, but he says the legislature will likely not increase income taxes to replace expiring sales taxes.
Over 900 farmers and ranchers are receiving grants averaging 9900 dollars for disaster recovery efforts resulting from the 2016 floods. Ag Commissioner Mike Strain says it’s long overdue.
The Restore Louisiana Task Force allocated 10 million dollars in total for the grants, as part of the 1.7 billion dollars in recovery money the state received for the floods.