The sweeping budget and tax plan being negotiated on Capitol Hill contains hundreds of billions of dollars in proposed cuts to Medicaid, which covers 1 in 3 Louisianans. Those cuts would strip coverage from people with low incomes and disabilities, and wreak havoc on the state budget. That helps explain why, in the waning hours of the legislative session, state lawmakers unanimously urged Congress to protect the health care program. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Stephanie Grace explains:
House Resolution 369, which asks Congress not to take action on Medicaid that adversely affects hospitals, was authored by state Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, who chairs the Appropriations Committee that deals with the state budget; it passed 98-0. Senate Concurrent Resolution 32 from state Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Covington, chair of the Health and Welfare Committee, asks Congress to oppose “sweeping or indiscriminate cuts” to Medicaid. It passed the Senate 35-0 and the House 84-7.
As Congress rushes to meet a self-imposed July 4 deadline to send a bill to the president’s desk, Louisiana’s congressional delegation is left to choose between the folks they represent and the political pressure to fall in line behind the cuts:
In an ideal world, (state Senate President Cameron) Henry’s pleas would spur action from the Congressional delegation’s Republicans — who, after all, were elected to represent the same constituents as all those GOP representatives and senators who are asking for relief. Yet the pull of national politics may be too strong.
Why bills stall in the Senate
A number of House-passed bills ran aground in the Senate during the recently concluded legislative session. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Meghan Friedmann explains why legislation can sometimes stall in the upper chamber:
“Senators represent almost three times the size of a House district. They represent — in most cases, if not all — a larger, more diverse constituency,” (Sen. Kirk Talbot) said. Jay Dardenne, a former senator, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and commissioner of administration, said the Senate has long “been the place where ideas that have sailed out of the house die.” “It’s not that unusual,” he said.
The Senate rejected a package of tax cut bills amid concerns that they would have created massive budget gaps in upcoming years. The upper chamber also nixed new spending commitments for Louisiana’s new private school voucher program:
Meanwhile, House Bill 283, a proposal to place a cap on state spending, passed the House but got stuck in the Senate Finance Committee. … In another example the House adopted Gov. Jeff Landry’s request to include $93.5 million to fund GATOR, a program that helps families pay for private schools. But the Senate then took $50 million out — Senate President Cameron Henry said $43.5 million was the amount legislators had previously agreed to, and his members were worried the program’s cost could grow out of control.
Federal cuts gut medical research in Louisiana
Decades of work on cancer, HIV and other health issues in Louisiana will end because of federal research cuts. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Emily Woodruff reports on the far-reaching consequences of the funding reductions:
A list of canceled grants from Health and Human Services from January to June of this year shows cuts to programs in Louisiana to train underrepresented students in biomedical research; investigate racial disparities in lupus, suicide and lung cancer; study COVID-19 immunity in diverse populations and boost vaccination rates were all cut, a total of $2.5 million in funding that was pledged but not delivered. Another $95.3 million was cut from grants to the state health department. These figures do not include sub-awards that flowed through out-of-state institutions, like the Pennington diabetes study, or grants that were delayed, which can effectively end a study.
The full scale of the funding cuts is hard to measure:
Although HHS has published a list of canceled grants, many large research institutions in Louisiana operate as sub-awardees on multi-site projects led by out-of-state partners. Pennington’s diabetes study, for example, is run by Columbia University. When those institutions face debilitating cuts, local collaborators often lose funding as well without appearing on any public list. That ripple effect makes the damage difficult to quantify.
Changes to Louisiana’s film tax credit program
Act 44, which was signed by Gov. Jeff Landry earlier this month, will make Louisiana’s film subsidy program more lucrative and give the state’s economic development agency more power to make future changes. Verite News’ Jasmine Robinson explains:
Under the new law, qualified productions can receive a tax credit of up to 40% of total production expenditures. The program provides a base credit, previously capped at 25%, with additional smaller incentives for filming outside of New Orleans, employing Louisiana residents, performing visual effects services in-state. … The new law doesn’t change the total dollar value of credits the state can issue annually. Louisiana can issue up to $125 million in credits per fiscal year. Prior to the new law, changing the program required changing state law. Now, LED has more power to adjust the program on its own terms using an administrative rulemaking process.
Louisiana’s effort to subsidize the film industry has its detractors:
Critics, including some fiscal conservative groups, have scrutinized the program and its purported benefits in past years. A 2017 report by an economist for LED found that Louisiana taxpayers got a return of 22 cents on the dollar for the program, which was thriving at the time.
Number of the Day
2.4% – Percentage increase of personal income in Louisiana between the third and fourth quarters of 2024, the lowest in the nation. (Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis via The Advocate)