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Prices good at all Lafayette, New Iberia and Youngsville stores April 9th - 16th, 2025.
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F r i d ay, a p r i l 11, 2025
Johnson gets budget bill passed in House
Measure directs committees to reduce spending
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Landry, insurance chief at odds over legislation Tort reform battle boils as session approaches
BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
The budget debate has high stakes for Louisiana. For example, the steeper cuts some Republicans want could lead to reductions in Medicaid, which could devastate the state budget and leave many low-income residents without health insurance. Louisiana has one of the highest percentages of people on Medicaid. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, the Jefferson Republican who is the second-highest-ranking House leader, said the measure accelerates Trump’s agenda to extend his 2017 tax cuts while expanding energy exploration, restricting immigration, and other issues.
Two powerful state leaders have promised they are committed to bringing down high auto insurance rates shouldered by families and businesses alike, a challenge both have called “a crisis.” But Gov. Jeff Landry and Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple, both elected in 2023, this week during competing news conferences presented starkly contrasting visions of policy solutions that will translate to lower rates. Temple said the primary reason auto insurance rates are high in Louisiana is that when drivers get into accidents, “we’re more than twice the national average to file a bodily injury claim and more than twice to litigate.” “That’s what the majority of the legislation is going to focus on,” he said at a news conference Thursday. Most of the bills Temple is backing during the legislative session that begins Monday would put stricter limits on people’s ability to sue over damages and how much money they can win in court — an effort pushed as “tort reform” by business interests and insurance companies. “Will trial lawyers who sue for massive, excessive payouts attack our solutions and call them harmful to consumers? Probably so,” Temple said. “From energy to insurance, I’m sick of how our state has historically sided with a few trial attorneys over the many citizens and job creators in Louisiana.” The package of bills will create “transparency, certainty and predictability in our market,” Temple said. That in turn will attract insurance companies to Loui-
ä See JOHNSON, page 5A
ä See LEGISLATION, page 4A
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Benton, talks to reporters Thursday just after House Republicans approved their budget framework that is central to President Donald Trump’s agenda. BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
WASHINGTON — Once again with his back pressed to the wall by hard-right Republicans, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, was able to pull off Thursday another narrow victory to forward the legislative agenda of President Donald Trump. The House voted 216 to 214 to accept Senate changes to a House blueprint bill that instructs congressional committees to reduce spending in the federal budget. Two Republican members — Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, and Victoria Spartz, of Indiana — joined all the
Democrats in voting against the measure. If another Republican had joined the Democratic opponents, the measure would have failed. As expected, Louisiana’s four Republican members voted in favor and two Democratic representatives voted against. Johnson had to pull the legislation from a floor vote Wednesday night after a group of about a dozen hard-right holdouts concerned about growing deficits demanded more spending cuts than the Senate’s version included. Johnson, with the help of Trump, had spent three days lobbying holdouts and was able to persuade enough to get the legislation passed Thursday morning.
Legislation filed to tax, regulate hemp-THC products BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
The Legislature could be in store for more conflict over hemp-THC products during the coming legislative session. Lawmakers have filed bills to raise taxes on them and to add criminal penalties for selling to underage customers. Last year, a battle over how to regulate the products — and whether to ban them outright — stretched into the final days of the session. Ultimately, the Legislature did
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not pass a ban. But lawmakers did lower the legal single-serving size from 8 mg of THC to 5 mg of THC, make it illegal to sell the intoxicating products to people under 21 and limit how bars sell hemp products like THC seltzers. THC, the compound in marijuana that gets users high, is also found in hemp, another cannabis plant, though at much lower levels than in marijuana. But many hemp manufacturers sell products with concentrated THC levels. So far, this year’s proposed changes do not include an outright
ban on such products. But two bills that would dramatically raise the consumable hemp tax are likely to face opposition from the industry. That tax now sits at 3%. House Bill 187 by state Rep. Bryan Fontenot, R-Thibodaux, would raise it to 15%, and House Bill 235 by state Rep. Michael Echols, R-Monroe, to 20%. In a statement, Fontenot said the change would generate about $9 million in revenue at a time when the state faces serious budgetary
STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
Lawmakers have filed bills to raise taxes on hemp and THC products and ä See HEMP, page 5A to add criminal penalties for selling to underage customers.
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