BATON ROUGE – An unemployment compromise will deliver an 11% maximum increase in unemployment benefits for out-of-work Louisianans, starting this week. Gov. John Bel Edwards agreed to end federal unemployment benefits tied to COVID-19 relief funding five weeks early last…
BATON ROUGE – Gov. John Bel Edwards said Wednesday the Louisiana Economic Development (LED) agency landed 34 projects in 2021, totaling a purported $20 billion in future capital investments. Edwards said on social media the projects include multiple “clean energy”…
BATON ROUGE – Louisianans making more than $50,000 a year will pay a lower state income tax rate in 2022. Voters went to the polls in November to consider four ballot amendments dealing with…
BATON ROUGE – U.S. Sen. John Kennedy is trying to stop an effort to allow the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) from making direct government loans through its 7(a) lending program. The…
BATONROUGE – Louisiana has failed to provide adequate public information about taxpayer money received through the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund, a new report from Good Jobs First asserts. The Coronavirus Relief Fund was a provision in the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus…
NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana was the top job-growth state in October, according to Fitch Ratings, but the firm’s “adjusted” unemployment rate for Louisiana was nearly twice as high as the state’s official October unemployment rate of 5.4%. Fitch-adjusted unemployment is…
BATON ROUGE – A Louisiana “safe harbor” provision protecting businesses that make first-time mistakes when classifying employees as independent contractors has run afoul of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Fresh Start Program, known as Act 297, allows employers to…
BATON ROUGE – Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon said he will file a lawsuit to stop a “rehabilitation” plan for an insolvent out-of-state insurance company that sold long-term care policies to elderly Louisianans. Donelon said the plan presents an unreasonable…
BATON ROUGE – Fiscal watchdog Truth in Accounting has knocked Louisiana’s annual financial report with several low-transparency findings. State governments release comprehensive annual financial reports every year that are audited by certified public accountants and serve as bedrock public information…
BATON ROUGE – Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry is touting an oil-and-gas land lease sale – the first of the Biden administration – that could deliver $100 million to the state in the next year. The funding estimate is based…
BATON ROUGE – Voters narrowly rejected a constitutional amendment ballot question that would have streamlined Louisiana’s decentralized sales tax system, but lawmakers and business groups are looking to continue the tax reform effort. “Though Amendment 1 did not pass last…
