Senate President Cameron Henry continues to question Louisiana’s effort to steer public tax dollars to private schools. Last week, he pressed state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley on whether he has a conflict of interest in overseeing public schools while administering a voucher program that could weaken public education in the state. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Patrick Wall reports:
“Do you see a conflict,” Henry asked, “in that you’re also navigating a program that takes kids out of the system that you’re working so hard to improve and puts them into private schools?” … On Friday, Henry suggested that overseeing the controversial program could be a distraction for the state’s top education official.“ I get the strange feeling you probably spend more time discussing this than you do the numerous other roles that you have,” Henry told Brumley.
State tax revenues dropping below long-term trends
State tax revenues have performed below their long-term trends for five consecutive quarters, with a majority of states’ collections dropping below 15-year trends. Justin Theal and Alexandre Fall of the Pew Charitable Trust, writing in Governing, report:
Nationally, state tax revenue was 3.2 percent below its 15-year trend by the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, after adjusting for inflation and smoothing for seasonal fluctuations. This marks a sharp contrast from early 2022 when collections were 14.9 percent above trend—the highest in at least 15 years. The number of states underperforming their 15-year trajectories has grown steadily over the past two years as collections stagnated after the unexpectedly high levels reached during the second and third budget years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Senate must drop SNAP cost shift provision
The effort to shift more food assistance costs to states does not comply with strict budget reconciliation rules and must be removed from the sweeping tax and spending bill moving through Congress, according to the U.S. Senate Parliamentarian. States would have been required to pay at least 5% of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits starting in fiscal year 2028, but some states could have been stuck paying up to 25% based on payment rate errors. Stateline’s Jennifer Shutt explains:
Republicans are using reconciliation, instead of moving the bill through the regular legislative process, to avoid needing Democratic votes to get past the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster. But the lower threshold for passing a reconciliation bill comes with several requirements, including that all of the proposals in the package have an impact on spending or revenues that’s not “merely incidental.”
The Tax Foundation estimated the nixed SNAP provisions would have cost Louisiana $326 million per year – or more than the state spends each year to support the University of Louisiana System.
A new TOPS Excellence award
Under the original version of Rep. Chris Turner’s House Bill 77, TOPS scholarships would no longer have been based on a school’s tuition and instead allocated at a flat rate. While students attending cheaper, regional schools would have paid less, those attending pricier schools, such as LSU, would have paid more, which convinced Turner to remove the flat amounts. As The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Patrick Wall reports, the Ruston lawmaker ultimately settled for a new “Excellence” scholarship award:
Starting this fall, the award will provide up to $12,000 per year to students who attend a public university, or roughly the annual cost of tuition and fees at LSU’s main campus, and up to $8,500 for students at eligible private universities. To qualify, students must score 31 or higher out of 36 on the ACT and earn 3.5 or above grade point average. Fewer than 900 students annually are expected to get the award, or less than 2% of first-year students at the state’s public colleges and universities.
HB 77 heads to Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk for his signature or veto.
Number of the Day
-14% – Decline in inflation-adjusted housing prices in New Orleans since 2000. The Crescent City’s residential real estate market was ranked dead last out of 100 U.S. cities studied. (Source: University of Mississippi via The Advocate)