Louisiana News

Michelle Gable, best-selling author, on her latest work, "The Book of Summer."

State Rep. Ted James visits with us on the one-year anniversary of the shooting of Alton Sterling. With Attorney General Jeff Landry reviewing the case involving two police officers, Rep. James comments on the tension lingering from the events of last July 5th.

Louisiana's budget problems basically boil down to one thing – more money needing to go out than is coming in. When it comes to state retirement systems, that problem has a name: it's called the “UAL”.

Yesterday we looked at state income, as part of Budget 101. Today we’ll look at the outgo.

Where does Louisiana spend its $9-billion of State General Fund revenue?  Let’s begin with what are known as “non-discretionary” items.

LOUISIANA TAX REVENUES: Louisiana has begun a new fiscal year that started July 1^st.  Much has been made of the state’s budget situation and come next July 1^st in 2018,  the state’s one-cent sales tax will disappear and unless state lawmakers act,  there will be a $1 billion-dollar PLUS  fiscal cliff so-to-speak.  With this mind,  it may be worth to understand what revenues the state relies on to deal with such things. 

A new fiscal year started this past weekend, so this might be a good time for a basic review. Let’s call it “Budget 101”.

We’ll start with state income – also known as revenue. 

ARKANSANS FAVOR MEDICAID EXPANSION - A poll released by the American Medical Association this week finds that 44 percent of registered Arkansas voters sampled oppose the program commonly known as Obamacare.  BUT when asked about The current form of the Republicans’ American Health Care Act as a replacement for  Obama-Care,  it didn't do much better as 40-percent of Arkansans who responded didn't like it either.   However, when asked about Arkansas' Medicaid Expansion program 55%  of respondents had a favorable view.

Each week, American Routes brings you Shortcuts, a sneak peek at our upcoming show. This week we speak with Kristi Guillory and Christine Balfa, the founding members of Cajun super group Bonsoir Catin. Christine is the daughter of fiddler Dewey Balfa, who created a national audience for Cajun music during the 1960s folk revival.