A potential 5% cut to the Department of Children and Family Services would cripple the agency’s efforts to prevent child abuse, respond to natural disasters and modernize its outdated computer systems. Agency officials laid out the grim scenarios last week to the House Appropriations Committee, which is examining the 2025-26 state budget as Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration prepares to grapple with a half-billion dollar budget shortfall caused by the expiration of temporary taxes. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Meghan Friedmann explains how the already beleaguered agency can’t tighten its belt any further:
A 2022 investigation by The Advocate | The Times-Picayune found that, when adjusted for inflation, the DCFS lost nearly half of its funding between 2007 and 2021. Though the agency has received some funding increases in recent years as a result of the child welfare crisis, Secretary David Matlock said the agency is still stretched thin, and he described it as having been “cut to the bone.” “We’ve already been trimming the fat, so to meet any external budget cut would mean that we have to start looking at expenditures that would have a direct impact on the families and children that we’re responsible for serving,” [Undersecretary Rebecca] Harris said.
Budget cuts for thee, but not for me donors
Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration recently increased Medicaid payments for seven hospitals, including four that are owned by a generous political donor and friend of Donald Trump Jr. The Louisiana Illuminator’s Julie O’Donoghue reports:
Louisiana’s health department increased the hospitals’ Medicaid payments on Sept. 16 with no advance notice. It provided the money through an emergency rule process that circumvents the public hearings and comment periods that normally accompany such decisions. In interviews, legislative leaders said they still feel the hospitals need the extra dollars. “We’re taking care of the people that rely on those hospitals,” Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said.
Landry’s move comes at the same time his administration has told the Louisiana Department of Health to prepare for budget cuts. LDH officials recently outlined how $105 million in potential cuts to next year’s budget – $332 million when federal funds are included – would fall hard on programs that serve elderly people, vulnerable children and people with disabilities.
Most of the extra $22 million going to the seven hospitals this fiscal year is federal funding the Louisiana health department can’t move to its other programs, but $5.2 million comes from the state general fund. That state money could be used next year to pay health care services that are facing cuts if desired.
Climate change denier-in-chief
Stronger storms fueled by climate change are making Louisiana a riskier and more expensive place to live. The state’s recent homeowners insurance crisis is pricing many people out of their current homes and crushing the dream of homeownership altogether for many others. But Gov. Jeff Landry seems intent on ignoring this harsh reality. As The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Bob Marshall explains, the state’s continued embrace of fossil fuels is contributing to a potential financial crisis.
In congressional testimony, leaders in the reinsurance industry — which provides insurance companies funding to cover extreme events like hurricanes — warned that those impacts could cause the whole property insurance model to crash, setting the U.S. up for a major economic crisis. They worry that the possibility of soaring insurance rates and the unavailability of insurance could cause real estate prices to tank, leaving mortgage and investment firms facing ruin due to unpaid loans. As one expert said, “[just] as the U.S. economy was overexposed to mortgage risk in 2008, the economy today is overexposed to climate risk.”
Reality check: Louisiana has sustained $294 billion in damages from weather events since 1980, behind only Texas and Florida.
Youth Empowerment Project turns 20
The Youth Empowerment Project helps children and young adults in New Orleans who are transitioning out of the state’s criminal justice system to access support and resources that put them on a path to a brighter future. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s James Finn, on YEP’s 20th anniversary, reports on the far-reaching effects of the program:
Over the past two decades, YEP has added the bike shop, thrift store and the after-school building, joining several developments that have risen to brighten a once-economically stagnant neighborhood. Its adult classes, job training and free after-school and summer programs for kids ages seven to 16 are available not just in Central City, but in classrooms from New Orleans East all the way to Algiers. The organization now serves not just youth returning from the custody of Louisiana’s Office of Juvenile Justice, but practically anyone who needs its services. Its programs reach about 1,000 people each year across its locations in five parts of the city.
Number of the Day
2.8% – Percentage of U.S. children who were lifted above the anchored poverty line in 2023 due to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance and school lunch benefits, compared to 3.2% in 2022. This weakened poverty reduction coincided with the expiration of federal pandemic food assistance measures. (Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)