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 legislators need to find a budget solution sooner rather than later, as the indecision is stressing out the industry.
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, but Harris says he sees two options for funding those healthcare priorities: keeping a piece of the expiring one cent sales tax, and eliminating sales tax deductions for certain industries in an anticipated special session.
Two current and two former Troopers have been arrested on various charges as part of a six month investigation into payroll fraud. The four men allegedly claimed bogus hours and wrote fraudulent tickets as part of a highway safety program funded by district attorneys. State Police Colonel Kevin Reeves says this has been a long and unfortunate journey….
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican who is Louisiana’s senior senator, has joined calls for fellow Republican Secretary of State Tom Schedler to resign, amid allegations he sexually harassed an employee for years.
“Increasingly it appears the allegations against Secretary Schedler are true,” Cassidy, of Baton Rouge, said in a statement to The Advocate Monday evening. “He should resign..”
Cassidiy joins a growing chorus of Republicans and Democrats, including Gov. John Bel Edwards, to urge Schedler to step down