Today, the chairs of Louisiana's four public postsecondary systems - the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, the LSU System, the Southern University System Board of Supervisors, and the UL System, in conjunction with the Louisiana Board of Regents, sent a joint letter to seek funding for higher education and for TOPS.. 

How far are the government stakeholders away from agreement on the Louisiana budget? Is Governor Edwards being straight-forward about the governmental needs and the inability to fund them? Will TOPS funding remain at a 30 percent cut or will the House of Representatives force a reduction on those reductions? Is there really government waste fraud and abuse or is that just talking points?

An issue the Louisiana Legislature continues to address poorly a House of Representatives panel this week kept that pattern going.   Yesterday, the House Education Committee passed along HB 399 by state Rep. Gary Carter. It would alter, whenever the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students did not receive full appropriation, the present across-the-board reduction algorithm. Instead, higher-achieving students, defined as those earning the top two categories, would receive no cuts although losing their extra stipends while the remainder would keep theirs only if their families had annual incomes below around $50,000, although they could recoup some from Pell Grants.

The Council for a Better Louisiana (CABL) has released the following statement in relationship to the Louisiana House of Representatives, led by Republicans, passing a budget that makes major cuts to Louisiana higher education and healthcare. The budget is consistent with the party's philosophy to spend no more than is anticipated and to not raise taxes. Here is the statement:

Today, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards released his $25.3 billion “doomsday” Louisiana operating budget outlining the worse case scenario for the upcoming budget year. The budget would devastate health services and sharply cut into the TOPS program.  After the budget was released, the Democrats released a statement concerned about what they call $2.4 billion dollars in cuts.

Edwards wants the Republican-controlled legislature to pass a replacement tax package.

by Lou Gehrig Burnett, Publisher of Fax-Net

Senate kills Carmody bill

    It was a losing proposition right from the get-go.  Shreveport Rep. Thomas Carmody was successful in the House of Representatives, but it was a different story in the Senate.