Louisiana leaders rolled out a host of tax breaks and financial incentives across two legislative sessions to convince Meta to build a $10 billion artificial intelligence data center in rural Richland Parish. Meta leaders originally pledged that the new facility would create between 300 and 500 permanent well-paying jobs. But as Wired’s Roshan Abraham reports, Louisiana isn’t legally requiring the company to fulfill that promise:
One of Meta’s tax incentive agreements with the state, which was signed last fall and viewed by WIRED, does not stipulate that Meta subsidiary Laidley, which is running the data center project, will focus on local hiring, although it does require that all jobs be fulfilled on site. … And the tax incentive agreement does not actually require any of the jobs to be full-time to receive state incentives. Instead it defines “full-time job” to mean any 40-hour workweek fulfilled through any number of part-time jobs.
Why Obamacare bills may double next year
Tax credits that reduce premiums for Affordable Care Act coverage are set to expire at the end of this year. These credits have become a key sticking point in Capitol Hill negotiations to prevent a government shutdown by next week. The New York Times’ Reed Abelson and Margot Sanger-Katz explain what will happen if Congress does not renew these crucial subsidies:
KFF has estimated that Americans’ share of premiums could increase by an average of more than 75 percent. About two million people are expected to lose their coverage next year if the extra funding expires, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. And the number is expected to grow over the next decade. … Coupled with other changes made by this Congress and the Trump administration, the number of people with A.C.A. plans could eventually decline by roughly half, with states like Florida and Texas seeing the most significant drops, according to an analysis by the actuarial firm Wakely Consulting before Republicans passed their major tax and domestic policy bill this summer.
The failure to renew the credits would have major consequences for Louisiana. The number of people with ACA plans would decrease by 61% in the state, the highest percentage point decrease in the nation, and approximately 85,000 more Louisianans will become uninsured in 2026.
FEMA leader asleep at the wheel
Staff from the Federal Emergency Management Agency could not reach their boss for nearly 24 hours as deadly flood waters raged through parts of Central Texas in July. The absence of FEMA’s acting administrator, David Richardson, who was vacationing, caused critical delays in the deployment of search-and-rescue crews and equipment. The Washington Post’s Brianna Sacks, reports:
The agency’s typical posture is to get resources to a disaster zone before state and local governments even have to ask for them, current and former officials have said, because minutes can cost lives. “Nobody could get a hold of him for hours and hours,” said one D.C.-based senior official who coordinated search-and-rescue resources.
Another reason for the holdup: a new policy by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem requiring her approval for any expenses above $100,000. That micromanagement combined with Richardson’s laissez-faire approach to his job, could spell bad news for people and places prone to natural disasters:
Because in disasters, “hesitation isn’t just a gap; it’s a national vulnerability,” said MaryAnn Tierney, a former acting deputy FEMA administrator who held high-ranking positions within the agency for 15 years before leaving in late May. “Disaster survivors don’t care who’s in charge; they care that someone is,” she said. “When leadership is absent or unqualified, the system stalls.”
Teacher pay penalty reaches record high
The gap between the weekly wages of teachers and college graduates working in other professions grew to a record high of 26.9% last year, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute. This wage gap, known as the teacher pay penalty, saw teachers earn, on average, 73.1 cents for every dollar made by other college graduates. While teachers do receive better benefits than their counterparts, it’s still not enough to make up for this discrepancy. The report’s authors lay out why the teacher pay penalty matters and how to fix it:
Closing the pay gap between public teachers and similarly educated professionals is essential to attracting and retaining qualified educators, boosting student achievement, and securing the future of public education. … Targeted and sustained investments in public education are needed to mitigate, let alone reverse, the growing teacher pay penalty. Funding efforts at the local and state levels, along with support from the federal government, are needed to improve teacher pay and compensation. Additionally, public-sector collective bargaining should be upheld and expanded, given the role of unions in advocating for improved job quality and better pay.
The teacher pay penalty in Louisiana is -28.2%, higher than the national average.
Number of the Day
61% – Percentage of American children who rely on Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program at some point by their 18th birthday. (Source: Journal of the American Medical Association via the Louisiana Illuminator)