Louisiana
SBA Offers Financial Relief to Louisiana Businesses Impacted by New Year’s Tragedy in New Orleans
Biden-Harris Administration quickly deploying resources to assist all those impacted by horrific attack
Washington, Jan. 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In response to the request from Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that small businesses and private nonprofit organizations (PNPs) in Louisiana may now apply for federal disaster loans to offset economic losses caused by the mass casualty incident that occurred in the French Quarter of New Orleans on Jan. 1. The disaster declaration includes the parishes of Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and St. Tammany.
“The SBA joins the entire federal family in grieving the lives lost in this horrific attack and praying for those who were injured,” said SBA Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman. “As New Orleans and the wider community mourn and begin the healing process for this devastating tragedy, the SBA, in collaboration with state and local partners, stands ready to support and help provide disaster assistance to businesses suffering economic impact – including the small businesses than make neighborhoods like the French Quarter so vibrant.”
Under this declaration, the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program is available to eligible small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small aquaculture enterprises, and PNPs that suffered financial losses as a direct result of this disaster. EIDLs offer working capital needs caused by the disaster and are available even if the business did not suffer any physical damage. The loans may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other bills that could have been paid had the disaster not occurred.
The loan amount can be up to $2 million with interest rates of 4% for small businesses and 3.625% for PNPs, with terms up to 30 years. Interest does not accrue, and payments are not due, until 12 months from the date of the first loan disbursement. The SBA sets loan amounts and terms based on each applicant’s financial condition.
Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the SBA has simplified the process for an SBA disaster declaration and expanded available financial relief available, allowing the agency to more quickly provide greater affordable disaster loans and assistance to the small businesses that are the backbone of our communities nationwide.
Applicants may apply online and receive additional disaster assistance information at SBA.gov/disaster. Applicants may also call SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov for more information on SBA disaster assistance. For people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.
Louisiana
Louisiana could get rid of inspection stickers — in most places. Is your parish on the list?
Drivers in most of Louisiana would no longer need to get inspection stickers under a bill advancing in the Legislature with Gov. Jeff Landry’s support.
Instead, personal vehicles would just need a sticker that lists its vehicle identification number.
Drivers in some parts of the state, however, would still have to get inspections.
New Orleans, Kenner and Westwego have their own rules requiring the stickers — which locals famously call “brake tags” — and those would “still be allowed to continue as they are,” Office of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Keith Neal said.
And, emissions testing would still be required for drivers in several Baton Rouge-area parishes because of a federal air quality order under the Clean Air Act. Those parishes are Ascension, East Baton Rouge, Iberville, Livingston and West Baton Rouge.
Commercial vehicles and school buses would still be required to do regular safety inspections.
House Bill 838, sponsored by Rep. Larry Bagley, R-Stonewall, would set a $6 annual cost for the new VIN sticker, and the fee would be assessed and collected by the Office of Motor Vehicles during registrations and registration renewals.
For example, someone who renews a vehicle registration every two years would pay $12 and someone who renews every four years would pay $24.
“The good thing about it is you won’t have to go get a sticker,” Bagley told members of the House transportation committee. “It’ll simplify many things.”
For most parishes, inspection stickers would no longer be required effective January 1. Starting June 30 this year, law enforcement would be prohibited from issuing citations for not having an inspection sticker.
In the five-parish capital region that’s subject to federal emissions testing requirements, the law would take effect once the Environmental Protection Agency approves the change.
The House transportation committee approved the bill Monday without objection.
Valerie Brolin, a spokesperson for the City of Kenner, said Mayor Michael Glaser would consider whether Kenner should end its brake tag program if HB838 becomes law. “Kenner’s not going to independently do it on its own,” she said.
What the new stickers would do
The new stickers would contain a QR code that, when scanned, lists the VIN.
“The only thing that’ll be in that QR code is the VIN,” Evelina Broussard, chief information officer for the state’s Office of Technology Service, told lawmakers on Monday.
Bagley in an interview said having the 17-digit VIN accessible to law enforcement through a QR code allows them to more easily enter it into the systems they use for ticketing or other searches, rather than enter it manually.
Landry called for eliminating inspection stickers in his “State of the State” speech to open the legislative session earlier this month.
“It’s time to eliminate the inspection sticker and stop this major inconvenience for Louisiana drivers!” Landry posted on X Monday after the bill passed out of committee.
Landry previously said the state may eventually use the sticker to display insurance coverage information.
Asked about the plan to display insurance information, Bagley said it is not currently part of the legislation, though it “possibly could” be in the future.
Bagley, who has served as a state representative for 11 years, said he’s been trying to pass the legislation since his second year at the Capitol.
Landry’s support of the measure is what’s made the difference this year, he said.
“He’s saying he’s going to change Louisiana for the better, we’re going to see a lot of changes,” Bagley said of Landry. “This is one of them.”
Bagley said so far this year there’s been no opposition to his bill.
“Why would you want to fight a first-term governor that’s popular when you know there’s probably not much you can do,” he said.
Louisiana
Entergy Louisiana’s claim customers will save thanks to Meta deal greeted with some skepticism
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Meta is building a multi-billion dollar data center in northeast Louisiana and Entergy Louisiana is a huge part of the project’s equation.
“We did reach agreement with Meta to expand or have a new agreement, actually, for the data center at their Richland Parish site,” Phillip May, CEO of Entergy Louisiana told Fox 8 on Monday (March 30).
“This new agreement will require us to build seven new generators. Each of those generators will be about 750 megawatts each. So, about 5,200 megawatts of new, efficient, modern gas-fired generation.”
May pointed to other benefits.
“That generation will come with hydrogen capability and carbon-capture availability as well, as well as additional 2,500 megawatts of solar, three separate battery projects, and up rates on our nuclear plant,” May said.
May said the agreement with Meta ultimately will benefit Entergy Louisiana customers by $2 billion.
“This thing is structured to save our customers over $2 billion, over the life of the 20-year contract,” he said. “And Meta is fully paying for the cost associated with these assets over that 20-year period.”
He was asked how what Entergy plans to generate for Meta, in terms of megawatts, compares to what it is generating now for other customers.
“This amount of generation is about 50% more than is currently deployed by Entergy Louisiana,” May said.
But the deal concerns the utility watchdog Alliance for Affordable Energy.
“We haven’t had nearly enough time to review this most recent application, which, by the way, has a lot of redactions. So there’s an awful lot of information that the public, and certainly we, have not seen yet to really be able to analyze and say, indeed, all of these savings are going to come to fruition,” said Logan Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy.
The group is concerned about what could happen in years to come.
“The way regulation works in the state of Louisiana is, once this infrastructure is approved to be built, is deemed prudent and in the public interest, it means that utilities will be able to recover those costs from whatever customers they have going forward. And if, in fact, Meta winds up no longer being a customer after 15 or 20 years, that’s billions of dollars in costs that ratepayers will be on the hook for,” Burke said.
Fox 8 asked May if Entergy Louisiana customers could end up paying more down the line as a result of the agreement.
“No. In fact, the opposite is true,” May said. “Our Entergy customers will see lower rates than what they otherwise would have been.”
The deal still needs approval from the Louisiana Public Service Commission.
“Well, the next thing that has to happen is a proper investigation,” Burke said. “The proceeding in which Entergy is filed for approval from the commission is underway now. It means that organizations like the Alliance and like the Public Service Commission have a responsibility to look at these books, to look at these agreements, and see if they are stable and what kinds of protections need to be put in place.”
May said he thinks approval could come before year’s end.
“The filing with the PSC has already occurred. I’m sure the LPSC will take it up, hire outside counsel in the things that they do, have a thorough investigation of this proposal,” May said. “We believe this could work through Louisiana Public Service Commission’s lightning initiative, that will allow it to be approved by the end of this year.”
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Bill Advances Honoring Shreveport Civil Rights Icons
Louisiana lawmakers move forward with bill honoring Shreveport civil rights icons Reverend Harry Blake Senior and Virginia Green Evans.
(The Center Square) − Louisiana lawmakers have filed more than 20 bills this session touching on artificial intelligence, but only a narrow slice of them has moved so far.
The clearest momentum has come on bills dealing with child exploitation. Senate Bill 42 by Sen. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, which prohibits using artificial intelligence to create child sexual abuse materials, passed the Senate 36-0 and was sent to the House the next day.
Senate Bill 110 by Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, bars using a child’s image to train an artificial intelligence model to produce child sexual abuse materials, also advanced out of the Senate and is now pending in the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee. But the broader regulatory push has moved far more slowly.
Rep. Josh Carlson, R-Lafayette, told The Center Square the efforts have run into familiar resistance from business groups wary of state-by-state regulation.
“Anything that effects business they say is bad for business,” Carlson told The Center Square.
Carlson has a bill that would create a Louisiana AI Bill of Rights, restrict certain chatbot uses involving minors, create disclosure rules for bots and AI-generated advertising, and bar the state from contracting for AI products tied to foreign countries of concern. Carlson is still working to get his bill added to the Commerce committee’s agenda.Another bill that has managed to make progress is HB190 by Rep. Laurie Schlege, R-Metarie. It passed the House 98-0. Two days after, an op-ed submitted to The Center Square from Citizens for a New Louisiana charged the law as “one that threatens to stifle innovation, burden small businesses and startups.” The op-ed suggested amending the bill, but Schlegel hasn’t budged so far.
Senate Bill 246 by Sen. Jay Luneau, D-Alexandria, was scheduled for Senate floor debate Monday but was postponed twice, first to Tuesday and then to Wednesday. The delay followed Luneau’s promise to the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry that he would amend the bill after the group sent a memo warning it could create “unnecessary compliance burdens for businesses operating across the state.”
“AI systems are inherently interstate and global, making them better suited for a consistent federal framework rather than fragemented state oversight,” the memo continued. “SB246 risks placing Louisiana at a competitive disadvantage while duplicating efforts more appropriately handled by Congress.” The memo mentioned a December executive order from the Trump administration which instructed federal officials to identify “onerous” state AI laws and said states with such laws could be barred from receiving certain remaining BEAD broadband funds, to the maximum extent allowed by federal law.
Louisiana has $800 million in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program funding that could be revoked. Responding to questions about concerns that his bill might violate that order, Edmonds told The Center Square, “I don’t see this as over regulation.” He said that, so far, he has heard no concerns with his bill.
Edmonds acknowledged concerns that overregulation could inhibit the use and development of AI, but said that his bill was specific and would not.
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