Gov. John Bel Edwards announced today that health care will bear the brunt of the entire $70 million in budget cuts the state has to make for a balanced budget by June 30, The Associated Press reports.
Edwards says the Department of Health and Hospitals has $40 million in savings from lower-than-expected Medicaid spending and changes made in department management since he took office.
The remaining $30 million in cuts will be divided among a program for “medically fragile” children, the managers of the privatized LSU hospitals and managed care companies that provide Medicaid services. Contracts in the department also will be cut, and Louisiana will tap into additional federal financing available for the Medicaid program.
The cuts will have to be carried out over the next three months before the fiscal year ends on June 30. In an earlier interview, Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne said the cuts will not be deep enough to shutter any institutions, but that they would be severe.
—The Louisiana House Judiciary Committee debated but never got to vote on a bill today that would have allowed the attorney general to demand records or documents without a warrant amid concerns the bill would infringe on due process of law.
House Bill 744 sponsored by Rep. Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe, the committee chair, would authorize the attorney general to issue a demand for documents before a civil proceeding is commenced.
Jackson said early in the bill’s hearing she intended to introduce an amendment “greatly reducing [the bill’s] scope.”
“This completely sidesteps the process,” said Rep. Jay Morris, R-Monroe. “We’re lucky to have a great attorney general, but there could be very, very serious consequences in the wrong hands.”
Jackson withdrew the bill, saying she would return it for consideration after making revisions to narrow its scope.
The House Judiciary Committee, however, did favorably passed a bill that would allow certain judicial records relating to domestic violence to be added to a national background check registry. Rep. Helena Moreno, the bill’s sponsor, said the bill effectively “fixed the holes” in background checking for domestic violence, saying the records affected by the bill would previously only appear in state background checks.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
—Gordon Brillon & Jeremy Alford
Jeremy Alford and Gordon Brillon will publish a daily update throughout the legislative regular session on Daily Report PM. Alford reports on Louisiana politics at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter or on Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
