Louisiana’s personal income tax generates $4.5 billion per year that supports education, health care, job training and other programs that are vital to the state economy. State Treasurer John Fleming is proposing to scrap the tax – and does not want to replace that revenue stream with any new taxes. Louisiana already faces a half-billion-dollar budget shortfall next year. The Times Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Alyse Pfeil reports:
“We agree that Louisiana needs serious tax reform and welcome any conversation on the topic,” said Steven Procopio, president of the Public Affairs Research Council. But, Procopio said, before eliminating the personal income tax, serious efforts would need to be made to identify which services to cut or how to make up that revenue — over a third of the state’s general fund.
Fortunately, Fleming has no actual power in this debate beyond an ability to command media attention. Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration is hoping to cut the income tax by going to a flat rate.
Horrors inside Louisiana migrant detention centers
Immigrants held in federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in Louisiana have been subjected to inhumane conditions and denied due process, according to a new report from immigration advocacy groups. The Times Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s James Finn reports on the horrors that migrants have experienced.
Migrants were fed cockroach-infested food, deprived of adequate hygiene products and some suffered instances of sexual abuse, according to the report, which the advocates compiled after interviewing 6,200 migrants being held in detention in Louisiana over a two-year period. … “These individuals have fled persecution and violence only to be thrown in ‘civil’ detention and left to fend for themselves in an abusive, profit-driven, and manipulative system,” said Sarah Decker, a staff attorney at the nonprofit Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization and a lead author of the report.
Louisiana trails only Texas in the number of immigrant detainees in ICE facilities.
Benefits of home visits for new moms and kids
A New Orleans pilot program that provides new moms and their children with free nurse visits and supply kits is showing promising results. A Times Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate editorial elaborates on the benefits that participants are experiencing, and explains how the initiative can help address Louisiana’s alarmingly high infant mortality rate:
Visiting nurses have caught spikes in participants’ blood pressure, provided guidance on breast- and bottle-feeding, and offered a friendly, patient ear during a stressful time. The program offers diapers, car seats, breastmilk chillers and newborn supply kits, plus referrals for child-care planning, health care providers and support groups. Nurses can also help new parents set up safe sleeping areas for their children. … Preliminary data shows lower Medicaid spending and fewer emergency room visits and hospital stays for participants. And in surveys, 100% of moms recommended the program.
Family Connects, is available to all Orleans Parish residents who give birth at LCMC’s Touro Hospital or Ochsner Baptist. The program, which has no income limit, has so far served 300 new mothers.
SNAP benefits hold up farm bill
Congress will have just 22 days to reauthorize the farm bill – a multi-year law that authorizes funding and sets the rules for federal agriculture and food programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – when lawmakers return from their summer vacation next month. There are growing concerns that an agreement on a new version is out of reach and the 2018 version will be extended again. Route Fifty’s Elizabeth Daigneau reports that Republican opposition to SNAP benefit amounts are the reason for the holdup:
Congress in its last update of the farm bill in 2018 authorized the Agriculture Department to reexamine how it determines how much food assistance people should receive for the first time since 1975. The department began considering factors like current food prices, consumption patterns, modern dietary guidance, and the ability to buy more fish and vegetables. According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report, the guidance raised the amount of food benefits people receive by 21%. The House bill would undo the changes the Agriculture Department made to that tool, known as the Thrifty Food Plan.
A recent report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explains how the Republican-led House’s farm bill proposal would cause a $30 billion SNAP cut.
Number of the Day
1,833 – Official death toll from Hurricane Katrina, which roared ashore in Southeast Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005. At $200 billion, it remains the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. (Source: National Centers for Environmental Information)