On the horizon: Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration hasn’t yet settled on its plan for withholding $60 million from state agencies as a deficit-avoidance measure, The Associated Press reports. Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne says the administration will announce next month which agencies will be told to lessen their spending plans. Dardenne says he’s collected information from the chief financial officers of each department to help make those decisions. He’ll report to the Legislature’s joint budget committee in August on how the figure was divvied up across the $28 billion state operating budget and which agencies will be limited in their spending.
All aboard: A group of Gulf Coast leaders has recommended that Amtrak restore a passenger train route that goes through the Gulf Coast. As The Sun Herald reports, the Gulf Coast Working Group in a report issued Monday recommended Congress consider two routes—a daily New Orleans to Orlando round trip and a daily New Orleans to Mobile round trip. Louisiana, Mobile and Mississippi would have to come up with the money for the Mobile route. “This service will not only help us meet the future transportation needs of the region but could also be a boon for tourism and the local economy,” says U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, who helped create the working group Congress approved as part of the FAST Act in 2015. Read more.
Hammers ringing: Homebuilders ramped up construction in June to the fastest pace in four months, led by surges in the Northeast and Midwest, The Associated Press reports. Commerce Department figures show that housing starts climbed 8.3% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.22 million. The gain ended three straight monthly declines and marked the strongest pace of building since February. Home construction has risen 3.9% year-to-date, but that slight increase has been unable to make up for the decrease in existing homes being listed for sale. The June housing figures point to healthy demand that new construction alone has been unable to satisfy. Read more.
