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The Legislative Fiscal Office estimates Louisiana could save up to $554.9 million over five years and between $185.2 million to almost $511 million over 10 years by expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

The liaison organization between Barksdale Air Force Base and the Shreveport-Bossier community is preparing to roll out a $100,000 scholarship program for Barksdale airmen enrolled in college programs. The Shreveport-Bossier Military Affairs Council raised the dollars in haste when it learned that the military tuition assistance program would be cut due to automatic spending cuts by Congress. The tuition assistance has since been reinstated.

House committees took up two big ticket items Monday: budget reform and tobacco taxes.  Bills that would makeover the process of building the state’s budget passed favorably in the House Appropriations committee. A packed Ways and Means committee did not vote on tobacco taxes; representatives deferred their bills.

Democratic lawmakers claimed a small victory Sunday. But it wasn’t on the House floor, but at the first annual Truce for the Troops Bowl.

All four bills seeking to increase taxes on tobacco products in the state have been voluntarily tabled amid legislative opposition to raising taxes.

Louisiana House Speaker Chuck Kleckley last week called on the legislature to restore funding to the state program that provides breast and cervical cancer screenings to uninsured and underserved women, and Sen. Karen Carter Peterson chaired a committee focused on funding for women’s services.

Women testified about holes in funding for domestic violence shelters, pregnancy care, cancer screenings, and sexual health. Peterson called Governor Jindal’s budget proposal for next year irresponsible. According to Beth Meeks, from the Louisiana Coalition on Domestic Violence, the governor’s slashing of women’s services just doesn’t make fiscal sense.