Louisiana has received more than $100 million in federal aid to clean up approximately 4,700 abandoned “orphaned” oil and gas wells on state lands. A recently passed state law will create the Louisiana Natural Resources Trust Authority, and a permanent revenue stream, to tackle orphaned wells and the environmental risk they pose. The Times Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Meghan Friedmann reports:
The new trust authority will operate much like a bank. It will conduct financial risk assessments on companies and charge them money upfront based on the risk level, Gray said. The higher the risk, the higher the fee will be. If the operator abandons the well, the state will then have in reserve the money to plug it. … Since not all that money will be used to deal with abandoned wells, the program will also give the state extra cash, Gray said. And that cash will collect interest.
The Harris economic agenda
Vice President Kamala Harris wants to expand the federal child tax credit, cancel vast amounts of medical debt, crack down on grocery “price gouging” and provide up to $25,000 in aid for first-time homebuyers if she is elected president this fall. The Harris campaign laid out the proposals Friday morning in advance of a speech in North Carolina. The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein and Dan Diamond report:
Harris has thus far surrounded herself with many former aides to Biden, and her team had made some overtures to business leaders that they hoped reflected a more centrist approach. But the policy positions she embraced Friday suggest she will continue, if not deepen, the party’s transformation under Biden, who pushed for more aggressive government intervention in the economy on industrial, labor and antitrust policies.
Changes to teacher evaluations
Veteran public school teachers who are rated “highly effective” could opt out of classroom observations, while younger teachers and those who are struggling in their jobs would be given more support under a new pilot program being rolled out this year. The Times Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Elyse Carmosino has the details:
Currently, all teachers are observed twice per year, regardless of their experience level or scores on previous observations. … Under the new system, teachers with at least three years of experience who score “highly effective” on their first observation will be allowed to opt out of any remaining observations that school year. Those with less than three years of classroom experience will be observed three times each year.
A teachers union spokesman said the new rubric comes with some drawbacks:
Richard Baker, director of research and strategic development with the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, the state’s largest teacher’s union, said the new rubric is more comprehensive and allows for more nuance in judging teachers’ performance. However, the more detailed assessment model could place unrealistic expectations on teachers, he added. “It’s going to demoralize, I think, more than it’s going to help,” Baker said.
The argument against eliminating taxes on tips
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have both called for eliminating federal income taxes on tips. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s Joe Hughes explains why this is a bad idea:
It’s been proposed before and always abandoned because it’s practically impossible to do without creating new avenues for tax avoidance. … It’s an approach that rich people with accountants and lawyers would surely be able to abuse. Fund managers, attorneys, and other high-paid professionals could easily reclassify their fees — or at the very least, some percentage of them — as mandatory tips for performance. … Finally, these proposals create incentives to drive even more low-paid service employees into the tipped worker category, harming many workers and their families.
Number of the Day
$1.15 million – The wealth gap between white and Black families in 2022, on average. The average white family had more than four times the wealth of the average Black family. (Source: Urban Institute)