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Lawmakers try again on tax revamp
Landry, allies seek to simplify overhaul BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
A month ago, voters soundly rejected a complicated proposal by Gov. Jeff Landry to revamp the tax section of Louisiana’s constitution. The defeat has not deterred Landry and his legislative allies from trying to take another bite of
the apple, albeit in smaller bites. The governor and his allies believe that voters rebuffed Amendment 2 on March 29 because it was too complex and tried to make too many different changes. They note that the numerous changes contained in the amendment were spelled out in a 115-page bill. So, after breaking out the popu-
lar individual pieces, they are now pushing four specific changes that were part of Amendment 2, which lost at the polls along with three other amendments. “Voters said they wanted to be able to vote on simpler forms of those elements,” said Richard Nelson, the revenue secretary and intellectual author of Amendment
2. “This is responsive to that.” Those changes would: n Eliminate three education trust funds, pay off retirement debt and use much of the savings from that move to supplement salaries for teachers and support staff. n Give parish governments the option of ending the property tax on business inventory. n Eliminate the Revenue Stabilization Fund and use the freed-up money to fill up the rainy day fund and cover the cost of phasing out
La. DEQ chief leaves after months of controversy
2025 LEGISLATURE TAXES
the inventory tax. n Impose a limit on how much the state can increase spending each year on education, health care, prisons and all other government programs. Each of the various measures,
ä See REVAMP, page 4A
Family looks for answers in man’s disappearance Bradley Stracener went missing 5 years ago
BY STEPHEN MARCANTEL Staff writer
STAFF FILE PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Then-Gov.-elect Jeff Landry, left, introduces Aurelia Skipwith Giacometto, who he named to head Louisiana’s Department of Environmental Quality, during a news conference Nov. 15, 2023, at Russo Park in Lafayette. Giacometto is leaving her post for a job with a Washington, D.C., law firm after months of controversy from staffers upset over her management style.
Veteran staffer to take top job in department BY DAVID J. MITCHELL
prioritized environmental improvements to our air, land, and water, while also keeping a focus The embattled secretary of on the jobs and businesses that Louisiana’s environmental agen- often suffer from red-tape and cy is leaving for a post with a overregulation,” Landry said Washington, D.C., law firm after in a statement. “We are gratemonths of controversy ful for her actions to imfrom staffers upset prove the Department over her management and wish her the best in style and amid highher next endeavor.” profile departures. Landry’s statement Aurelia Skipwith Giadidn’t address Giacometto’s rocky tenure at DEQ, cometto, secretary of nor did Giacometto’s the Louisiana Departresignation letters to emment of Environmental Burdette Quality, has accepted a ployees and the governor. position with Earth and Water Giacometto, a former wildlife Law Firm, the Governor’s Office and fisheries director in Presisaid Friday. dent Donald Trump’s first term, As the next secretary, Gov. came in with Landry’s initial Jeff Landry named Courtney cabinet, promising to streamBurdette, a former 10-year DEQ line DEQ and align it to promote staffer who left last year early economic development while in Giacometto’s tenure. still protecting the environment. “I want to sincerely thank AuBut her leadership style relia for her dedicated service to rubbed employees the wrong our State and the Department of way, triggering a state audit of Environmental Quality. Aurelia the agency’s workplace culture. Staff writer
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In public statements responding to accusations, Giacometto argued the criticisms were false and part of the price she was paying from a few disgruntled employees to bring transformational change to the agency. “I was not appointed to take the easy or popular road. I am inspired daily by the dedication of LDEQ’s hard working employees, and I am not going to allow a few to undermine their great work and the success of this agency,” she said in a response to one scathing letter from a former agency human resources lawyer and ethics attorney several weeks ago. According to Politico Pro, Giacometto had been in the running in early December for a new post as a deputy Interior secretary with the Trump administration, but the nomination went to one of her competitors, Kate MacGregor, in January.
ä See DEQ, page 3A
It was a normal Wednesday in Vernon Parish on Oct. 30, 2019, said Toni James. Her son, Bradley Stracener, woke her up after cooking breakfast at her apartment southeast of the central Louisiana city of Leesville. Stracener left her apartment at 1:47 p.m. to return his girlfriend’s car, a gray Ford Fusion, since his truck was not working. His girlfriend lived about 10 miles away. At 2:30 p.m., she got a call. “That’s when (his girlfriend) started to call and wanting to know where he was at in her car,” James said. “Things caught Bradley’s attention. I didn’t think too much about it until she kept on calling. “Then I started to worry.” That was the last day James saw her son. More than five years later, detectives with the Vernon Parish Sheriff’s Office have
PROVIDED PHOTO
Bradley Stracener went missing on Oct. 30, 2019.
been unsuccessful in chasing leads to find out what happened to him. Family members have been left to piece together what they can about his disappearance. Stracener was a kind, calm and reserved type. Not a fan of small talk, it would be common to see him on the outer edges of gatherings, James said. He left behind a son — Oliver, who is now 12 — and was an avid tinkerer with a knowledge of welding. He had struggles with drug addiction, which in 2016 landed him in jail in Tyler, Texas, on possession charges. He carried an extensive criminal record in
ä See MISSING, page 3A
La. faces surge of whooping cough State identifies 164 cases so far this year
BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
Whooping cough cases are surging in Louisiana, a trend that “could result in a record high for 2025 — more than has been seen annually in the state for at least 35 years,” according to a news release Friday from the Louisiana Department of Health. The Health Department said it has identified 164 cases in just the first four months of the year, while there were 153 cases during
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all of 2024. “Two deaths have occurred among young infants hospitalized with whooping cough,” the Health Department said. “These were the first whooping cough deaths reported in Louisiana since 2018.” One of those deaths occurred in the latter half of 2024, and one occurred in the first two months of 2025, a spokesperson for the Health Department said. Louisiana’s increase in cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis, mirrors national trends, according to the Health Department. The spread of the illness is also leading to an
ä See SURGE, page 4A
100TH yEAR, NO. 307