by Lou Gehrig Burnett, Publisher of Fax-Net

Relevant at last

Louisiana took center stage on Super Saturday as presidential candidates anxiously awaited the results from the Bayou State, which, indeed, turned out to be relevant for the front-runners for the Republican and Democratic parties.

Not a good statistic to consider during the tail end of a budget crises, but according to a just-released report, Louisiana is the third lowest state in the area of real state property tax.

The statistic comes from WalletHub.com.

With Louisiana on the precipice of budgetary collapse, with Universities on the brink of going dark, Louisiana's Governor John Bel Edwards, who has been in office for less than two months, is calling the siren cry.

With fewer than 48 hours to go until the end of the special legislative session, Governor John Bel Edwards outlined the drastic cuts that are scheduled to take place in the areas of health care and higher education if the legislature does not bring in additional revenue to solve the current budget shortfall.  For the current fiscal year, Louisiana faces a more than $940 million deficit that must be addressed by Wednesday, Mar. 9 at 6 p.m.  For the fiscal year that begins on July 1, Louisiana faces a more than $2 billion deficit. Gov. Edwards has offered the only comprehensive plan to solve the budget deficits that includes both spending cuts and asks for a balance of revenue raising measures from businesses and individuals. 

We’re less than two days away from an exploding time bomb.

The minutes are ticking away.  If the Louisiana legislature does not fix a budget hole, as big as the width of the state, it reportedly will be forced to shut down Universities and healthcare centers, kick students out from their semester classes and perhaps, even, bid farewell to the purple and gold for this autumn, the LSU Tigers.