Rising health care costs, weakening tax revenue and the expiration of federal pandemic funding caused states to spend more of their own dollars on Medicaid in fiscal year 2024. Pew’s Justin Theal and Riley Judd explain:
States collectively spent $334.7 billion of their own resources on the program, up 20.1% from fiscal 2023, the largest year-over-year jump in at least two decades. As a result, Medicaid accounted for 17.1% of every state-generated dollar, a 2-percentage-point increase from the previous year.
Louisiana was not an outlier:
Louisiana spent 19.8%, or $4.1 billion, of its own resources on Medicaid in fiscal year 2024—a larger share than the year before and 1.5 percentage points higher than its 15-year average. Louisiana was one of 39 states during the same period that spent a larger share of its funds on Medicaid than its 15-year average.
Pew’s analysis does not reflect changes included in the federal tax and budget megabill, which shifts more Medicaid costs to state budgets. A new issue brief from Invest in Louisiana’s Annika Vanderspek explains how the megabill will cause Louisiana to spend more money to cover fewer people in Medicaid.
Census overhaul would exclude millions
The Trump administration proposed a new rule on Wednesday that would prevent immigrants without a green card, including ones with legal status, from being counted in the U.S. Census. The proposal would also remove questions about race and ethnicity. The rule could upend the decennial process that helps determine congressional seats and billions of dollars in federal funding. The New York Times’ Zolan Kanno-Youngs explains how the change could also affect anti-discrimination and civil rights policies:
“If we don’t have the data in order to see that there’s problems, then we’re sticking our heads in the sand,” said Kimball W. Brace, the president of Election Data Services, an organization working with Democratic and Republican local governments on census and election issues. “We won’t see it. We won’t get a feel for what’s happened.”
Public defenders struggle to cover expenses
The budgets of more than a quarter of Louisiana’s local public defender offices were in the red last year. The Louisiana Illuminator’s Julie O’Donoghue reports on how the state’s overreliance on fines and fees to fund its criminal justice system is helping to drive these budget deficits:
The state provided close to half of the $79.8 million public defenders spent in fiscal year 2024-25, according to the report. The other half came mostly from local sources, including conviction and user fees. In Louisiana, a large portion of local public defender revenue has traditionally come from a $45 fee assessed when a defendant is convicted of a crime or pleads guilty. This includes convictions for traffic offenses. Revenue from these fees has declined and can fluctuate drastically from year to year.
Poorest can’t find housing even as low-income units sit empty
There are roughly 11 million extremely low-income renter households in the United States. But America’s poorest people are shut off from the majority of recent low-income housing because they don’t make enough money. The AP’s Claire Rush reports:
(T)he majority of low-income housing financed in recent years is for those earning 50% of an area’s median income or above, according to a survey of state housing agencies. Some cities are now seeing an uptick in vacancies as rents for these units approach market rates. The result: Apartments designated as affordable sit empty because the poorest of the poor cannot afford them.
Number of the Day
1,131 – Decline in the number of energy-sector jobs in Louisiana in 2025, compared to the previous year. (Source: United States Energy and Employment Report)