The Louisiana State Bond Commission granted Hyundai up to $1.3 billion in tax-free bonds last week for the company’s massive steel mill in Ascension Parish. The borrowing would follow a $2.6 billion tax-incentive package the company has already received from the state. Modeste resident Nieaka Henderson, in a guest column in The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate, explains what the mult-national company must do to show it will be a good neighbor in her community:

In return, we deserve guarantees of full and fair compensation for our homes. We want good, safe, well-paid jobs free from discrimination. And we want guarantees that Hyundai is building the cleanest steel mill possible using the best technology to reduce pollution for our community. If Hyundai wants to join our neighborhood in good faith, then it must start demonstrating that it wants to contribute. Because we are not interested in bad neighbors who want to just take and not give back.

Medicaid coverage losses loom 

Roughly 58,000 Louisianans on Medicaid could be required to take additional steps to meet new enhanced work reporting requirements that were included in the federal megabill. That’s according to new Louisiana Health Department data that was presented to state lawmakers on Thursday. The Louisiana Illuminator’s Julie O’Donoghue reports:

Around 46,000 Medicaid recipients who don’t have an existing exemption also have no income, making it more likely they would have to make adjustments to keep their benefits. Another 12,000 earn some money each month but not enough to satisfy the work requirement threshold. Still, it’s not clear how many of those remaining 58,000 could already be in compliance with the proposed work regulations through taking part in school, job training or volunteer work. The health department has not started tracking those activities yet.

After LIV golf failure, beware sweet industry deals

Saudi-backed LIV Golf owes Louisiana $1.2 million after cancelling a June event in New Orleans. The state’s decision to partner with the struggling tour has faced scrutiny. Louisiana leaders have also used massive tax breaks and secret negotiations to court Meta and SpaceX – two of the world’s richest companies – to the state. Nancy Picard, in a letter to The Times Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate, hopes these deals don’t go the way of the bankrupt golf tournament:

Putting aside the very large question of whether these projects are advisable at all, one wonders who is looking out for the welfare of our residents and for the state environment that was once known as a “sportsman’s paradise.” That moniker will no longer apply to these two locations, what with the constant blasting of rockets and drone of generators. And what happens if Louisiana and Richland and Vermilion parishes are left holding the bag, à la the LIV Golf debacle?

New Census data shows importance of refundable tax credits

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) reduced the share of children living in poverty by roughly 25% last year. That’s according to new Census data that was released on Tuesday. But we know these credits can do more to lift children out of poverty. That’s because an expanded CTC helped cut child poverty by nearly half in 2021. Unfortunately, families lost this critical support when Congress failed to extend the credit. Joe Hughes of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy:

The so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) included a $200 increase in the maximum CTC amount. (Notably, this left the CTC smaller, adjusted for inflation, than it was when Republicans passed their giant 2017 tax bill.) The impact of the CTC on childhood poverty was actually two percentage points lower in 2025 than the year before. This is in part because OBBBA did not address any of the problems that keep CTC away from millions of children in the lowest income households. Any serious attempt to help working families would have included at least some of the proven solutions that helped slash child poverty in 2021.

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Number of the Day

$124,674 – Annual income a family would need to own a medium-priced home in order to keep monthly payments at 30% of income. This is 44.7% higher than the actual median income of $86,159. (Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta)