Wrapping it up: Louisiana lawmakers are hoping to wrap up their special session early. The Associated Press reports the House and Senate are pushing to complete work today on a package of budget bills to finance state government operations and construction projects in the year that begins July 1. That would be days ahead of Monday’s session deadline. Senate leaders are working to avoid rewriting or tweaking the nearly $29 billion state operating budget as they debate so it can avoid a second vote in the House and head straight to Gov. John Bel Edwards’ desk. The budget would keep most agencies free of cuts and fully fund the TOPS free college tuition program. Lawmakers failed to finish a budget in their recent regular session, pushing them into a special session to complete the work.
Left behind: In the 10 most expensive U.S. metro areas, median home values have increased by 63% since 2000, after adjusting for inflation while the 10 cheapest metros saw their median home values rise by just 3.6%. Bloomberg reports the stark contrast is more evidence of the uneven recovery among the U.S. housing markets. The findings and others are illustrated in the annual State of the Nation’s Housing, released today by Harvard University’s Joint Center For Housing Studies. Home prices have increased sharply in expensive coastal cities, but are lagging in plenty of urban centers, the report notes. Home prices in 3 out of 5 metropolitan areas remain below their pre-recession peak, and home prices in low-income neighborhoods are faring even worse. Read more.
Now hiring: Employers added a significant number of jobs in nine states last month, and unemployment rates in four states fell to record lows. As The Associated Press reports, the Labor Department says the states with the largest percentage gains in jobs were Alaska, Alabama and Louisiana. The nation’s capital, Washington D.C., recorded an even larger gain. Overall, the figures suggest that steady, if slower, hiring this year is improving the job market in many states. Florida added nearly 30,000 jobs last month, the most of any state, followed by New York with nearly 28,000 and North Carolina with almost 19,000. Arkansas’ unemployment rate dropped to 3.4% in May, a record low. Mississippi, Oregon and Washington state also reported record lows, all dating back to 1976.
