Governor signs on to end of federal jobless pay, bigger state benefits

Gov. John Bel Edwards signed into law a bill that will end federal pandemic unemployment in exchange for a long-term increase in state unemployment benefits.
The bill passed as the state’s regular legislative session came to a close.
House Bill 183 will increase state unemployment payments by $28 a week, starting Jan. 1, up to a maximum of $275 a week. The state’s current weekly payment of $247 a week is among the lowest in the nation.
Republican legislators said they would support the proposal if Edwards agreed to turn off federal pandemic unemployment payments of $300 a week, starting July 31. Those payments are scheduled to end nationwide in early September.
With his signature Wednesday, Edwards became one of the first Democratic governors to agree to end the federal payments early. At least 25 states, all led by Republican governors, have indicated they would do the same.
Business leaders across the country have been urging states to opt out of the federal payments early, saying the additional money is an incentive for people who are unemployed not to seek new jobs. Louisiana’s unemployment rate is 7.3%, ninth-highest in the country.
“The federal unemployment enhancement made sense when government mandated business shutdowns that left hundreds of thousands of Louisiana residents without the opportunity to work,” a statement from the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce said. “The weekly payment, combined with state unemployment assistance, is currently the equivalent of almost $14 per hour, which is nearly median individual income in the state. In other words, one can be in the middle of the pack in terms of earnings by not working.”
Democrats in Louisiana were split on the measure.
“I just can’t believe you’re doing this, turning down federal unemployment for people who have had the hardest year of their life,” Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, told her colleagues during debate on the floor.
Rep. Chad Brown, D-Plaquemine, who sponsored the bill, said he had “heartburn” over the tradeoff but that “a permanent increase going forward is desperately needed.”
The Senate approved the bill 32-5, while the House voted 74-27 in favor of it.
Edwards said he and other state officials had been discussing an August cutoff for the federal payments and July 31 was a reasonable compromise.
“When kids go back to school, parents have more of an opportunity to go back to work without having to worry about child care,” Edwards said at a news conference. “That was really always the reason for picking August as opposed to September.”
The collective wealth of Louisiana residents decreased $484.9 million in 2019 due to population migration trends, according to a new analysis of Internal Revenue Service data by the nonprofit Wirepoints website.
—The Center Square

Plan to revamp how schools are graded stirs debate
Discussion that was to begin this week on a plan to overhaul how Louisiana rates its schools has been put on hold after critics spoke out against it.
State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley introduced the proposal, which would reduce the number of schools that receive grades of D or F.
Academic growth and how students compare with their peers account for 25% of a school’s annual performance score, which is translated to a letter grade. The new plan would bump that to 38%.
Brumley said 54% of schools with a grade of F and 80% of schools with a grade of D would get an A or a B for student growth under his plan.
Critics said this would inflate scores and make it appear as though students and schools are performing better than they are. They also said Louisiana differs from most states by awarding points for student growth compared with their peers rather than for improving their own test scores.
On the National Assessment for Educ-ational Progress, often called “the nation’s report card,” Louisiana consistently ranks near the bottom on the standardized testing that measures math, science and reading proficiency at the elementary, middle and high school levels.
“The growth piece needs more consensus,” Brumley said. “I am not disputing that.”
The Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education removed the item from its June meeting agenda because of the dispute, saying only it would be taken up at a future date.
“After digging into accountability recommendations and having questions myself, hearing from a variety of stakeholders and advocates on all sides, and hearing from other board members, BESE leadership is prepared to pull this off the agenda,” BESE President Sandy Holloway said in a statement.
Brumley said his proposal came from a recommendation made by a BESE advisory panel called the Accountability Commission, which wanted to see academic growth account for 47% of school scores.
Controversy also arose over Brumley’s idea to give schools credit for students who score at least a 17 on the ACT. A 17, less than half of the total 36 points available, is in the 35th percentile, meaning that student performed better than 35% of test takers.
Schools currently get no points for students who score 17, 70 points for those scoring 18 and 80 points for those scoring 19. Brumley’s recommendation is to give schools 80 points for students who score 17, 18 or 19.
—The Center Square

La. not among states whose tax funds have rebounded
Monthly tax receipts collected in Louisiana from March 2020 to February 2021 remain below the total tax revenues collected in the previous year, according to a new analysis by Pew Charitable Trusts and the Urban Institute.
The analysis showed that for the first time, tax revenue collected by the majority of the 50 states exceeded that of the prior 12 months, showing that revenue growth in most states has erased the losses that occurred during the pandemic. In the case of Louisiana, tax revenues decreased 2.5% over that time period.
Nationwide, total state tax receipts were up 0.01% in the March 2020-to-February 2021 period, compared to the previous year, the study found.
—The Center Square