The Senate Finance Committee heard testimony today from disability advocates who are raising the alarm over the House passed budget that would place deep cuts in healthcare starting July 1st, including the slashing of programs for the disabled. Ville Platte Senator Eric LaFluer says the cuts would eliminate services for over 45 thousand developmentally disabled patients.
Emotional testimony was presented on behalf of the disabled, this man said it was a life or death situation.
The Senate Finance Committee is expected to approve a budget later this week, but approving additional funding will have to wait until a special session.
The Louisiana Department of Health will begin mailing eviction notices to 37,000 mostly elderly residents of nursing homes who may lose Medicaid coverage under a House passed budget. Baton Rouge Senator Regina Barrow says the letters are likely to create a panic.
Louisiana is now on a six year run of record breaking tourism numbers as the state saw 500,000 more visitors in 2017 than it saw in 2016, for a total of 46.7 million visitors. Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser says a lot of these great results come down to a big push to bring in more folks from outside the U-S…
Tourism also brought in 1.8 billion dollars in local and state tax revenue in 2017, a 4.5 percent increase over 2016.