Louisiana
Stephanie Grace: Lawmakers say don’t cut Medicaid. The state’s members of Congress should listen.
The Louisiana Legislature just got through passing a whole bunch of laws, but few if any will affect the state’s financial health — and that of many of its residents — as much as what’s happening in Congress right now.
And on that, lawmakers had a clear message for Washington: Don’t cut Medicaid.
I’m not talking about just members of the Democratic minority, or even a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans. No, resolutions urging Congress to preserve funding for the widely used program passed overwhelmingly in both houses in Baton Rouge, each stocked with a supermajority of Republicans.
If that doesn’t convey the urgency of the threat, the names of the lawmakers who wrote the resolutions should. House Resolution 369, which asks Congress not to take action on Medicaid that adversely affects hospitals, was authored by state Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, who chairs the Appropriations Committee that deals with the state budget; it passed 98-0. Senate Concurrent Resolution 32 from state Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Covington, chair of the Health and Welfare Committee, asks Congress to oppose “sweeping or indiscriminate cuts” to Medicaid. It passed the Senate 35-0 and the House 84-7.
Or maybe this might: Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, is lobbying his contacts in Congress to hold the line. If the deep cuts proposed in the Senate Finance Committee version of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act become reality and take effect immediately, the Legislature would likely have to go into special session to deal with the fallout, Henry said at a post-legislative panel hosted by the Public Affairs Research Council.
The proposed Senate language has “a bunch of things in it that would have significant effects on Louisiana, not in a positive way,” Henry said. These effects could impact many of the roughly 1.8 million people in Louisiana who are covered by various Medicaid programs, and also all of those who seek care at rural hospitals that rely on Medicaid funding to keep their doors open. Among many other things, the bill would cut into the “provider taxes” that states use to draw down federal match money.
In an ideal world, Henry’s pleas would spur action from the Congressional delegation’s Republicans — who, after all, were elected to represent the same constituents as all those GOP representatives and senators who are asking for relief.
Yet the pull of national politics may be too strong.
On the Senate side, Louisiana should get a sympathetic ear from U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, chair of the committee that oversees health care, member of the Finance Committee and a physician who long treated Louisiana’s neediest patients in the old Charity Hospital system. Cassidy has an admirable history of putting the state’s needs first, most notably when he crossed party lines to work on the giant infrastructure package passed under former President Joe Biden, which at the senator’s behest was written to focus on some of Louisiana’s specific challenges.
Yet he is depressingly compromised by his own political situation — specifically a reelection campaign next year in which he’s been targeted by MAGA forces still angry that he voted to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial — so much so that he pushed through Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation despite deep, entirely justified misgivings and is going out of his way to voice enthusiasm for the president’s giant spending bill.
Then there are two top-ranking members on the House side, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, and Henry’s former boss Steve Scalise, R-Metairie, the majority leader. Certainly the two of them should be in a position to understand how much the cuts, even under the House-passed bill, would hurt their state. Like Cassidy, they both did time in the Louisiana Legislature, so the stakes are hardly unfamiliar.
Yet here’s how Henry characterized their response: “They’re aware of it, but they are also aware that the rest of the country wants changes.”
Well, OK, but Trump didn’t talk about making these particular changes on the campaign trail. And it’s not like the people these Louisiana members represent didn’t vote like the rest of the country. They did, giving Trump an easy 60% majority in Louisiana, compared to his just-under-50% winning plurality nationwide. The legislative resolutions asking for help came from lawmakers sent to Baton Rouge by those same people.
So I don’t know, maybe Cassidy, Johnson, Scalise and the rest might want to dig a little deeper and consider joining state legislators in doing what’s best for their own constituents — not just a president who demands, and somehow seems to get, their fealty at every turn.
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – South Louisiana’s coast has long served as a natural buffer between communities and rising water.
But since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost nearly 2,000 square miles of coastal land.
Dr. Torbjorn Tornqvist, a professor at Tulane University, said Louisiana is one of the most vulnerable coastal areas in the world because of climate change, sea level rise and subsidence.
“Louisiana is arguably one of the most vulnerable… perhaps the most vulnerable coastal zones in the world when it comes to climate change and sea level rise… and there are several reasons for that but one important reason is that we have high subsidence rates, and that means sea level rise here is a lot faster than the average around the world,” Tornqvist said.
Tornqvist is the lead author of a recently published study examining the long-term impacts of sea level rise across south Louisiana.
He said the issue is no longer limited to communities closest to the Gulf Coast.
“People are leaving the coast of Louisiana, but it’s going to accelerate over the course of the century. And those people are going to have to go somewhere, and it’s likely that a significant number are going to look at a place like Baton Rouge to move to,” Tornqvist said.
Since Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana has invested billions of dollars in large-scale restoration projects designed to reduce flood risk and strengthen the coast.
Some researchers believe those projects are important but not permanent fixes.
“We have…right now we have a pretty high-quality flood protection system that’s obviously way better than it was during Katrina and we should certainly keep investing in upkeep, but we also have to recognize that’s only going to take us so far,” Tornqvist said.
State officials say those investments remain critical as Louisiana adapts to future flood risks.
Micheal Hare, executive director of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said the state’s coastal plan is designed to balance restoration work with protection projects, including levees.
“Our 2023 master plan certainly incorporates the best science available to us to then come up with a balanced approach between how do we effectively spend money on restoration as well as money on protection projects like levees,” Hare said.
Hare said those projects will continue to evolve as future risks change. CPRA and the Army Corps of Engineers are re-evaluating portions of the West Bank and Vicinity levee system in New Orleans to meet projected future flood risks within the next half-decade.
“Morganza to the Gulf is a great example, location communities came together, they started funding it…so that protection is critical…It will constantly be maintained and constantly elevated to meet the new levels of threats and risks that are out there,” Hare said.
Coastal officials and researchers agree that what happens along Louisiana’s coast will continue to affect communities far beyond the shoreline for generations.
“And so maybe you don’t live behind the levee, but I promise you want those coastal communities to stay there and to keep working, and to stay productive and engaged…so that we don’t have to have these flood fights further north or lose parts of our economy,” Hare said.
Tornqvist said the decisions made now could shape the future of Louisiana communities.
“What’s really important to recognize is that the next few decades are basically going to decide the long-term future of cities like Baton Rouge,” Tornqvist said.
Louisiana has always lived with water. As the coast changes and sea levels rise, the challenge is how communities across south Louisiana continue adapting for generations to come.
From the Gulf Coast to Baton Rouge, the future of Louisiana’s coastline is a conversation that impacts the entire state.
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Louisiana ranks among the top 10 most affordable states to retire, according to a new study from Retirement Living, a national journal of retirement research.
Researchers analyzed each state’s housing costs, living expenses and tax friendliness to compile the ranking. Louisiana, they say, is the eighth most affordable state for retirees.
In Louisiana, the median monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $932, the median home sale price is $255,000, monthly grocery spend per capita is $272, the average price per gallon of regular gas is $4, the average Medicare Advantage monthly premium is $13.35 and the average effective property tax rate is 0.55%.
West Virginia is the most affordable state to retire, followed by Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana, Indiana and Kansas. Researchers describe the South as “the sweet spot for an affordable retirement.”
The most expensive state to retire, meanwhile, is California, followed by Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Utah, New York and Minnesota.
Read Retirement Living’s full report here.
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – With hurricane season approaching, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is bringing the community together to prepare before a storm forms.
“We can’t stop disasters from happening. We can’t stop hurricanes from happening. But what we can do is equip our communities with the resources that they need to prepare for these storms ahead of time,” said Jayda Morris, CPRA outreach manager.
The agency hosted an event featuring interactive storm simulations and a full model of the Mississippi River.
“If you do it now, like on a sunny day like today, you’re ready to go for the rest of the season,” Jay Grymes said.
El Niño may reduce storms, but Louisiana still at risk
State Climatologist Jay Grymes said an El Niño pattern may reduce the number of storms in the Atlantic but warned against a false sense of security.
“In those 25 years, Louisiana, some part of the state has been impacted by 29 storms. That’s one a year, regardless of El Niño. So that should tell you something,” Grymes said.
He said the bigger concern is storms that can form in the Gulf with little warning.
“If we’re going to get a storm, it very possibly could be one that bubbles up in the Gulf and doesn’t give us five or seven days to track it coming our way. It gives us 40 hours to get ready for a landfall. So it’s imperative that you go ahead and do it now,” Grymes said.
Preparation goes beyond stocking water
Preparing now includes walking through yards, checking trees, and knowing whether everyone in the family can survive two weeks without power.
PhD students with the LSU College of the Coast and Environment gave the community a virtual reality experience that puts users inside a storm.
“If they wear the goggles or play with the Apple Vision Pro, they can understand how high will the flood be, and they can know how dangerous is the hurricane scenario,” said Yixuan Wang.
The VR simulation uses real historical data to show users what compound flooding looks like in New Orleans and surrounding areas. The goal is to make the science real for people who can’t picture what a flood map means.
“It’s just to let you understand the environment. We will add the audios, the different sound of the wind and the storm. And you can see how tense of the rainfall around you,” Wang said.
Organizers said the event is about making sure that when a storm threatens the area, families already know their plan.
Information from the event is available on CPRA’s website. Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.
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