The Louisiana Department of Health has outlined more than $100 million in potential cuts to next year’s budget – $332 million when federal funds are included – that would fall hard on programs that serve elderly people, vulnerable children and people with disabilities. The cuts were discussed last week by the House Appropriations Committee, which is taking an early peek at the 2025-26 state budget as Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration prepares to grapple with a projected budget shortfall caused by taxes that are set to expire on July 1. The Times-Picayune |Baton Rouge Advocate’s Alyse Pfeil reports:
Proposed cuts would eliminate millions in funding for the Adult Day Health Care Waiver program, which pays for daytime care for disabled people, along with the Long Term Services & Supports program, which pays for long-term care for those with disabilities and chronic illness, and the Program of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly, which provides nursing-facility-level care for elderly in their home. They also proposed rolling back recent pay increases for nursing home and other care workers.
Reality check: Budget cuts are not inevitable. The Legislature created the “fiscal cliff” and the Legislature has the power to avert the fiscal cliff and avoid damaging cuts to state services by either renewing the expiring revenue or replacing that money with revenue from other sources.
Incompetence is (still) the new corruption
Poor recordkeeping practices in Louisiana’s prisons and jails make it difficult to determine if people are being imprisoned past their release dates, according to a new report from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor. Three previous reports from the watchdog agency found that the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections routinely keeps people locked up well beyond their scheduled release dates. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Meghan Friedmann reports:
But the audit found there was not always evidence that such reviews were taking place. In 31 cases where an inmate’s release date changed, the audit found that 20 calculations “did not have reviewer initials or other support to indicate the change entered in the system was reviewed by someone other than the preparer.” An inadequate review process increases the risk that inmates are held past their release dates, Barrett Hunter said. … “Doing time in prison is hard. But it is even harder to be in prison when you know you should be free — and no one will tell you when you are going to get out,” [attorney William Most] said.
Teacher overtime loophole
Some school districts are not paying teachers for work done outside of the classroom, despite a new law that requires them to do so. Act 311 mandates that teachers are paid $30 per hour for duties that are not outlined in their job description. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Patrick Wall explains how districts are sidestepping the new law:
(S)ince the law took effect in May, some school districts have found a loophole: They added extra duties to teachers’ job descriptions, making them ineligible for overtime pay. “The purpose and intent of the act was never to have school boards revise job descriptions,” Tia Mills, president of the Louisiana Association of Educators, said during a House education committee hearing Tuesday. “It is truly unfortunate what has happened in some districts.”
School district leaders argue that they are just updating job descriptions to include duties that teachers were always responsible for, and push back at state lawmakers for imposing new costs without providing additional funding.
If the Legislature wants teachers to receive similar stipends for any work they do outside of class, then it should give schools more money, [Iberville Parish Schools Superintendent Louis Voiron, Jr.] argued. “This is an example of an unfunded mandate,” he said.
Don’t divert dollars intended for poor families
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program provides states with federal block grants that are supposed to be used, in large part, to provide basic cash assistance for poor children and parents. Far too often these dollars are funneled to other areas, despite evidence that they are effective at reducing child neglect and a family’s involvement in child welfare programs. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Aditi Shrivastava reports:
When TANF began, basic assistance was the single biggest use of TANF funds in all states. In 2022, states spent just $7.2 billion, or 23 percent, of their total funds on basic assistance. This is down from $14 billion in 1997, which would be $25.5 billion in 2022 dollars. (See Figure 1.) This amounts to a 69 percent drop in basic assistance spending when adjusting for inflation. The share of federal and state TANF funds spent on basic assistance varies across states, ranging from 2 percent to 75 percent in 2022.
Louisiana is one of at least five states that directs federal funding from TANF to controversial crisis pregnancy centers, a highly unregulated industry that counsels women against abortion and promotes abstinence-only approach to sex education.
Number of the Day
58% – Percentage of workers in the lowest-wage quartile who had paid sick leave in 2023, compared to 80% of all workers. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)