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Jeff Landry’s budget includes cuts to Louisiana’s domestic violence shelter funding

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lailluminator.com – Julie O’Donoghue – 2025-02-21 10:54:00

Jeff Landry’s budget includes cuts to Louisiana’s domestic violence shelter funding

by Julie O’Donoghue, Louisiana Illuminator
February 21, 2025

Gov. Jeff Landry has reduced state funding for domestic violence prevention programs by $7 million in his budget proposal for the second year in a row. Survivor advocates said losing the money could close shelter beds and end outreach services.

“It would have an almost immediate and catastrophic effect,” Mariah Stidham Wineski, executive director for the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said in an interview Thursday.

Wineski said her organization received $7 million more from the state in 2023 and 2024 and distributed the money to shelters and local anti-domestic violence groups to expand their programming. 

It was used to add 229 new shelter beds statewide for domestic violence survivors for a total of a little over 600 spaces. The money also opened 11 new outreach offices where people can seek counseling, support groups and legal assistance.

Landry also proposed cutting $7 million from domestic violence programs last year, but legislators added the money back into the state spending plan a few months later. Wineski hopes lawmakers will do the same this year during their legislation session that starts in April.

Domestic violence is one of the largest public safety issues facing Louisiana. In 2020, the state had the fifth highest female homicide rate in the country, and more than half of women who were victims that year were killed by an intimate partner, according to the Violence Policy Center.

A 2021 investigation by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor concluded the state desperately needed more shelter beds for domestic violence survivors. At the time, Louisiana’s 16 shelters had a total of 389 spaces and an average of 2,700 unmet requests for shelter beds every year.

Thanks to the additional money, Wineski said shelters got the number of unmet requests down to 1,400 annually – a historic low for Louisiana. 

“The state for the past two years has funded something that works,” she said.

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Wineski said the loss in state funding would come at a particularly vulnerable time for domestic violence services, which are also at risk of losing federal support.

The federal grants that help fund domestic violence services in Louisiana have shown up on lists of spending that President Donald Trump might cut, Wineski said. The state’s domestic violence organizations were also blocked from accessing any federal funding for two days in January when the administration put a wide-reaching freeze on federal spending in place. 

“This is a level of funding uncertainty that [domestic violence shelters] have not seen in recent history,” Wineski said. “Now is really not the time to be losing state dollars.”

In total, Wineski said between 40 and 45% of the money her organization receives every year comes from federal or state funds. 

Since taking office last year, Landry has said public safety would be his top priority. While he has proposed cuts to domestic violence services, the governor has increased funding for other public safety services dramatically over the last year.

This year, Landry and state lawmakers agreed to spend close $100 million on new youth jails and prisons. His budget proposal for fiscal year 2025-26, released Thursday, includes $39.5 million more in funding for the Department of Public Safety of Correction from the current year.

At a budget hearing Thursday, state Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, said she will seek to restore the $7 million in domestic violence response funding.

“We should not be decreasing funding to domestic violence shelters,” she said.

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Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.

The post Jeff Landry’s budget includes cuts to Louisiana’s domestic violence shelter funding appeared first on lailluminator.com

News from the South - Louisiana News Feed

Rep. Knox proposes tip tax exemption for Louisiana workers

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www.youtube.com – WWLTV – 2025-04-02 18:16:55

SUMMARY: Rep. Alonzo Knox from New Orleans has introduced a bill to exempt tips from state income tax for Louisiana workers, aiming to provide tax relief to those in the hospitality industry, which supports 72,000 jobs in New Orleans. Many workers rely on tips, and Knox’s proposal would allow them to deduct tip income from their taxes. However, some experts, like Yon Mohler from Invest Louisiana, warn that this could reduce state revenue during challenging economic times and suggest implementing a meaningful state minimum wage instead. Knox anticipates bipartisan support for the bill, which targets individuals earning less than $65,000 annually.

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Lawmakers are due back in Baton Rouge on April 14 for the start of this year’s regular session.

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Deadly shootings at phone repair shop add to concerns for neighbors

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www.youtube.com – KSAT 12 – 2025-04-02 18:10:53

SUMMARY: A recent shootout at a San Antonio cell phone repair shop left two men dead, causing alarm among local residents. The incident involved 47-year-old Kenneth Mcnite Jr., who fatally shot employee Cody Bell, 35, before being killed by another worker. This violence adds to community fears following the unsolved murder of 28-year-old Maria Delles Labrador nearby. Residents express worry about safety, with some feeling the need to carry firearms for protection, particularly due to the proximity of violence to local establishments, including children’s swimming classes. The area is increasingly perceived as dangerous by locals.

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A shooting at a cell phone repair shop on the far Northwest Side Tuesday afternoon is adding to concerns that people who live in the area already had.

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U.S. House Democrats say NOAA cuts will harm weather forecasting, fisheries, Navy operations

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lailluminator.com – Jacob Fischler – 2025-04-02 17:51:00

by Jacob Fischler, Louisiana Illuminator
April 2, 2025

Democrats on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee and a panel of experts on Wednesday blasted the Trump administration’s reduction to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s budget and workforce, citing consequences for everyday weather data, national security and affected industries.

Virtually every American interacts with NOAA’s weather data, which supplies forecasting services across the country.

The agency’s climate and oceanic research supports the U.S. Navy’s operations and even the commercial fishing industry – described during the forum as having “a love-hate relationship” with the agency – depends on NOAA to open and close fisheries, the lawmakers and experts said.

But those missions were imperiled in February by the firings of 7% of NOAA’s staff of scientists and others overseeing federal research and monitoring of weather and oceans, the group of Democrats said.

“These critical functions are being dismantled by the sweeping, indiscriminate layoffs of nonpartisan public servants and facility closures,” U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner, a Rhode Island Democrat who led the forum, said.

The reductions in force at NOAA, which houses agencies including the National Weather Service, National Ocean Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, were part of across-the-board cuts to the federal workforce sought by President Donald Trump and billionaire White House adviser Elon Musk.

The group of Democrats, who met without involvement of the committee’s Republican majority, said the cuts would hurt a wide range of Americans who depend on the agency’s data collection and rulemaking.

Data collection and dissemination

One of NOAA’s core missions is collecting and publishing weather data across the country used in forecasting apps and other common sources of weather information.

“There is no weather forecast that’s produced in this country that isn’t dependent on NOAA, none” Mary Glackin, a former deputy under secretary for operations at the agency under presidents of both parties, said.

The availability of federal data made possible the creation of companies like Accuweather, which started by collecting data in a garage, Glackin said.

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Jon White told the panel NOAA’s extensive forecasting data was also critical to naval operations, saying reductions in that data would hurt the military’s readiness, both shipping out of domestic stations and in potential conflict zones.

“Hurricane forecasting and typhoon forecasting rely on the data from NOAA, whether it’s satellite data,” White said. “Reductions in that data and that information provide critical threats to our military infrastructure. Ships that (start) out of Norfolk and San Diego rely on that information about upcoming storms, especially hurricanes on the East Coast. … It’s not just billions of dollars of ship damage: It’s lives that are at stake.”

Industry needs NOAA

Magaziner was the one who called the commercial fishing industry’s connection with NOAA “a love-hate relationship,” but he and witnesses noted that the agency oversees the most basic functions the industry needs to operate.

Sarah Schumann, a fisherman with operations in Rhode Island and Alaska, criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for allying too strongly with offshore wind developers, but said the new administration’s actions were also detrimental to the industry.

“These cuts will bog down the agency’s ability to serve the public for fishermen,” Schumann said. “Because of climate change, we desperately need faster, more nimble and more collaborative data collection and decision-making, and there is a very slim chance we’re going to get that with this.”

Trump’s slowdown of regulations – requiring federal agencies to withdraw 10 regulations for every one new regulation put into place – has also hampered commercial fishing operations.

Opening and closing fisheries for a season are done through NOAA rulemaking, environmental attorney Lizzie Lewis told the panel. Bluefin tuna fisheries were not closed on time and were overfished by 125% and fisheries in New England are unlikely to open on time, she said.

Efficiency?

The cuts, part of Musk’s initiative to make government more efficient, are not having their intended effect in streamlining government, Magaziner and others on the panel, including New Mexico’s Melanie Stansbury, said.

“The assertion that mass layoffs will somehow improve efficiency is not only misleading, it is outright dangerous,” Magaziner said. “Real people, real jobs and real lives are on the line. Without NOAA’s real-time data,  emergency responders are left without the critical information they need to respond to impending disasters like wildfires, hurricanes, floods and severe storms putting millions at risk.”

The layoffs also decimated morale at the agency and made attracting qualified young people to its public service mission more difficult, Lewis told the panel.

“We are losing an entire generation of scientists and leaders who can help this country,” Lewis said. “We can keep its people safe and can grow its economy. And that to me is the devastating human cost.”

Last updated 5:08 p.m., Apr. 2, 2025

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.

The post U.S. House Democrats say NOAA cuts will harm weather forecasting, fisheries, Navy operations appeared first on lailluminator.com

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