A boost to Louisiana’s state income projections will give lawmakers more money to spend over the next 14 months, even as the post-pandemic financial surge continues to taper off and a fiscal downturn edges ever closer.
The state’s forecasting panel, called the Revenue Estimating Conference, increased its predictions for Louisiana’s tax and fee collections for the 2023-24 budget year that ends June 30 and the upcoming budget year that starts July 1.
The adjustments will give the Louisiana Legislature $197 million more in state general fund money for this year and another $89 million in the upcoming 2024-25 year. The general fund contains the flexible, unearmarked dollars that lawmakers can spend on any area they’d like to prioritize.
While those aren’t the kind of huge increases seen last term in the immediate recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak, the brightened financial picture should give lawmakers enough money to avoid backpedaling on education investments and other state priorities.
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With Thursday’s forecasting action, legislators have $920 million in short-term cash they can spend on infrastructure projects, debt payments or other items – or deposit into savings accounts for use in later years. That includes surplus money from last year, previous forecasting adjustments and state general fund dollars that agencies won’t need because they found other funding sources or had fewer expenses than expected.
In addition, dollars available for drawing up next year’s budget have grown larger.
The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana hopes senators, who currently have control of the budget bills, prioritize early childhood education and coastal restoration work with some of the money newly available. They also should continue a focus on paying down debts, such as retirement debt, to lessen the fiscal cliff on the horizon when a temporary 0.45% state sales tax expires on July 1, 2025. Anything lawmakers can do now to shrink the shortfall will lessen the pain of next year’s budget negotiations.
The House-crafted version of the budget cut $24 million from a program that provides quality child care and education for children from birth to age 3. House lawmakers used that money to instead pay for an increase in the K-12 public school financing formula sought by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for tutoring, student apprenticeship programs and targeted stipends for teachers in high-need areas.
PAR would like senators to use the extra dollars available for next year’s budget to reverse that House-proposed cut to an early learning program that helps parents stay in the workforce and children become better prepared to enter school.
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Senators also will consider undoing a House reduction to public school teacher and support worker stipends. The Legislature provided $198 million for those stipends in the current school year, but the House proposed shrinking that amount to $166 million next year. That’s an unnecessary cut that could weaken teacher recruitment and retention.
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Meanwhile, Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration is suggesting steering some of the new money available for next year’s budget to the Department of Children and Family Services to combat staffing shortages.
For the short-term money available, PAR would like to see legislators allocate some of the new money to the state’s vital coastal restoration and protection work. A trust fund for those efforts currently has significant sums, with some additional dollars annually flowing into the account. But that money is nowhere near the amount needed to fulfill the state’s coastal master plan.
Lawmakers face a complication if they want to spend all the new money recognized by the Revenue Estimating Conference.
The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Office said lawmakers would need a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate to breach a constitutionally set cap limiting annual growth in government spending if they want to spend more than $86 million of the $197 million added to this year’s general fund forecast. Such a vote caused angry debate and legislative infighting last year and nearly kept the budget from being passed in the regular session.
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So far, the Landry administration and legislative leaders are showing little interest in breaching the cap, preferring to stockpile some of the largesse for lawmakers to spend in future years when they face tighter budgets. Following PAR’s recommendation, they could steer dollars to the coastal fund for use in later years without exceeding the spending limit.
If lawmakers decide to set aside money in various accounts for the future, they should only withdraw the cash later to pay for one-time expenses – not to fill gaps in ongoing programs and services. It’s never advisable to pay for recurring expenses with short-term dollars because that simply continues the budget problems rather than fixing them.
The expenditure limit, however, won’t cause problems for using the $89 million in general fund money newly recognized for the budget that begins July 1 because lawmakers have more wiggle room under the cap next year.
The four-member estimating conference increased this year’s forecast because the state is collecting more than expected from corporate, personal income, sales and severance taxes and from interest earnings on sizable sums Louisiana has locked up in savings accounts. Next year’s forecast increase was driven largely by those better-than-expected interest earnings.
The conference bumped up its projections by even larger amounts than the state general fund numbers suggest, but much of the money is earmarked to trust funds and dedications. For example, the $2.3 billion Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund, created to lessen Louisiana’s reliance on volatile tax collections tied to corporate activity and oil and gas drilling, is projected to get another $1.1 billion in deposits over the next 14 months.
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As lawmakers decide how to use all the newly recognized money, PAR urges the House and Senate to keep their focus on priorities that will improve the long-term trajectory of the state while acknowledging the fiscal headwinds they will soon face.
Louisiana pastor Tony Spell must stay 50 yards from his neighbor’s home unless he’s checking the mail after a protection order was issued against him – as shocking bodycam appears to show him using a homophobic slur to describe his alleged assault victim, just two days after he was arrested.
Spell, 48, is banned from speaking with the neighbor either online and in person, according to the order issued Friday, which has since been reported by The Advocate.
“Mr Spell may walk over and check his mailbox; other than checking his mailbox, he is to be 50 yards away from the protected person’s property,” a note on the order says.
Pastor Tony Spell allegedly assaulted his neighbor’s son after he threatened to kill and rape his wife. WBRZ
Spell, the pastor of Baton Rouge’s Life Tabernacle Church, will appear in court in September after being charged with second degree battery over last month’s assault that unfolded opposite the church.
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He claimed Scott Sherwin’s son had threatened to rape and kill his wife before delivering 35 blows.
But two days after the brawl Scott Sherwin reported Spell for allegedly mowing his lawn at 4 a.m., WBRZ reported.
“He’s doing this to intimidate my victim son,” Sherwin claimed in bodycam video seen by The Post.
“Do you cut your grass at 4 in the morning?” he asked the responding officer.
“You gotta get him to stop man,” the furious dad said.
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Sherwin claimed his family was unable to sleep – alleging Spell was carrying out “psychological warfare.”
An enraged Sherwin then swore at his neighbor, allegedly flipping him off, according to the bodycam.
Tony Spell kneeling and holding a goat. Tony Spell / Facebook
“I was asleep when this started at four in the morning,” Sherwin stressed, aggressively pointing at his phone.
The cop then went over to Spell, who was sitting on his lawnmower, before asking for his name.
“Everybody in the world knows my name,” Spell brazenly replied to the cop.
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Spell, who faces up to eight years in prison if convicted, then labeled Sherwin’s son a “f—-t” and seemed to take pride in the now-viral beatdown.
“He’s just sore because I beat the crap out of his f—-t boy,” he said.
“And he’s next if he comes over here and harasses these boys,” Spell said, speaking while a group of teens gathered nearby.
He has been embroiled in a rivalry with his neighbor. Tony Spell
Spell then started his lawnmower up and told the boys “get to work,” essentially ordering them to clear off.
Spell strongly defended his actions after being released from jail over the assault.
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“Number one, I’m a husband, number two, I’m a father, and number three, I’m a pastor who shepherds his flock,” he said. “I will not allow a man to murder my children when I’m gone,” he told reporters.
He revealed what Sherwin’s son allegedly said, which prompted the beatdown.
“He said, ‘Tony, I’m going to rape your wife, I’m going to rape all your grandchildren, and the next time you go out of town, I’m going to kill them,’” Spell said.
He addressed the altercation to his congregation and compared it to “domestic terrorism.” He also cited a Bible passage from Mark 16:18, WAFB reported.
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“In my name, they shall lay hands on the sick. And they shall recover,” he said.
“So today, I fulfilled the scripture. I laid hands on the sick. I don’t know how much recovery they’re going to have, but I laid hands on the sick.”
Spell has been in a longstanding feud with Sherwin; the pastor filed a lawsuit during the pandemic in 2020 over surveillance cameras that were installed.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Spell was ticketed for holding in-person church services, defying Louisiana’s social distancing restrictions.
Spell claimed the cameras were installed to monitor him.
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In April 2020, Spell was accused of attacking a protester outside his church. Police alleged that Spell backed his church bus in the direction of the protester, who was identified as Trey Bennett, according to news station WAFB-TV.
He was arrested for aggravated assault but never formally charged.
A new study from researchers at LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center, FMOL Health | Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, and the Metamor Institute found that metabolic and bariatric surgery can be delivered safely and effectively for adolescents and young adults living with severe obesity, leading to significant weight loss and improvements in obesity-related health conditions.
Published in Obesity Surgery, the study examined outcomes from 76 patients ages 10 to 25 who underwent bariatric surgery through a Louisiana-based program at the Metamor Institute between January 2020 and March 2025. Researchers evaluated safety outcomes as well as longer-term health improvements associated with surgical obesity treatment.
The study found that patients achieved an average total body weight loss of 29%-32% maintained over one to five years. Among patients with available follow-up data, 94% experienced remission of type 2 diabetes, 67% showed improvement in hypertension and dyslipidemia and 64% experienced improvement in gastroesophageal reflux disease. Surgical complications remained low, with only 5% of patients experiencing complications within 30 days of surgery.
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Researchers noted that these outcomes were likely supported by a comprehensive, multidisciplinary care model that included experienced surgeons, nutritional guidance, behavioral support and coordinated medical follow-up. The study population represented a broad cross-section of Louisiana patients, with nearly 75% covered by Medicaid, highlighting the importance of ensuring access to effective obesity treatment options across socioeconomic backgrounds.
The findings support current American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations that adolescents age 13 and older with severe obesity and related health risks be evaluated for metabolic and bariatric surgery as part of comprehensive, evidence-based obesity care.
Meta Platforms Inc. has committed to spending an additional $40 billion on its sprawling data center campus in Louisiana, pushing its total expected investment beyond $250 billion for the site as it continues to grow its artificial intelligence computing footprint.
