Lotto: For the first quarter of fiscal year 2020, the Louisiana Lottery Corporation transferred $39.1 million to the state treasury, down $1.6 million from the same quarter last year. With first-quarter revenue of $111,751,634, the lottery contributed $39,113,070 to the state treasury about $737,000 off pace with budget projections. By law, at least 35% of lottery proceeds are transferred to the state treasury and dedicated for K-12 public education.
Payroll problems: For five years, from 2013 through 2017, hundreds of thousands of dollars were overpaid to the federal government in taxes after a payroll oversight caused all of the employees at the West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office to have taxes taken out of their retirement contributions, WBRZ-TV reports. The problem was caught, and employees got back their lost funds for three years, but 2013 and 2014 were not amended, and now employees are seeking recourse. Read the full story.
Lawsuit deluge: An opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal written by the newspaper’s editorial board calls Louisiana the “trial lawyer state” and puts the fault squarely on Gov. John Bel Edwards, saying the governor has turned Louisiana into a leading lawsuit producer. Read the piece here.
