This week Governor John Bel Edwards released his executive budget proposal for the coming year along with his priorities for how to spend billions of federal COVID relief funds and a pile of new state money. At this point the administration is only making recommendations and the Legislature will ultimately decide how the money will […]

The new year brings with it a lot of activity on the political scene. One of the first things out of the chute will be a special session to redraw a host of political districts in Louisiana. It happens every ten years and it’s a process citizens should pay attention to. On the one hand, […]

For years CABL has been involved in state tax policy issues with the goal of making Louisiana more competitive with other states. Over the last couple of decades, we have had both successes and setbacks. But tomorrow we have a chance to approve two constitutional changes that will clearly help move Louisiana forward. Amendment #1 […]

There is a lot of discussion occurring across the country about civics education and social studies. In Louisiana it comes at a time when our social studies standards are being reviewed and updated. What we teach about the history of our country and its strengths and flaws can be a sensitive subject. The good news […]

Early voting starts Saturday. For many people in Louisiana, there are not a lot of high-profile items on the ballot this year, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some important issues for voters to decide. Four constitutional amendments have been placed before voters and two of them deal with some major policy changes. You might […]

Two constitutional amendments on the November ballot represent a rare opportunity to streamline, simplify, and improve Louisiana’s tax structure. They are the product of months of hard work and the kind of compromise and give-and-take that represent government working the way people expect it to. Now, as the election approaches, there are isolated voices raising […]

Back in 1995, CABL was working on an election issues project called The People’s Agenda. It was a citizen-based effort to raise awareness of important issues in the races for governor and the Legislature. As part of that we did our first statewide, televised gubernatorial debates with Louisiana Public Broadcasting. Little did we know then […]

In 2021, the Louisiana Legislature passed nine new constitutional amendments. The good news for voters is that only four of them are on the ballot for this year, though they all deal with issues of substance. Two amendments are part of major tax reforms that policy groups and task forces have been discussing for years. […]

Although decades of research has shown that high-quality preschool education could have a significant impact on school readiness and student achievement in the early years, less was known about the possible benefits through high school. A new CABL study provides the first-ever set of findings that a statewide public Pre-K program can help promote long-term […]

This week the Louisiana Department of Education released its plans for how the state’s school districts should spend the nearly $4 billion in federal relief money coming into the state as a result of the pandemic. About 90% of those revenues will be going to local school districts which were given broad latitude by the […]