ArklatexPolitics.com

Posted 15 hours 50 minutes 1 second ago
Posted In: Home, Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- State sales tax collections were down 8.8
percent in February, compared with the same month a year ago.
Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said Wednesday that the state
collected $1.6 billion in sales tax revenue in February. And even
though that's down 8.8 percent compared to February 2009, she said
sales tax losses have begun to moderate.
Before February there were eight straight months of double-digit
declines.
Combs says sales tax revenue continues to be down in major
sectors such as retail, oil and gas production and construction.
But there's a slight uptick in the manufacturing sector.
She says there may be more declines in the coming months before
a return to sales tax revenue growth later in 2010.

Posted 15 hours 55 minutes 28 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- The Melville ferry that transports
drivers from St. Landry to Pointe Coupee parishes is slated for
closure.
Gov. Bobby Jindal's budget proposal for the fiscal year that
begins July 1 would shutter the ferry to save $213,000 in the
Department of Transportation and Development.
DOTD Secretary Sherri LeBas says the Melville ferry is used less
and is more expensive per vehicle than other state ferries. She
told the House Appropriations Committee that while drivers are
charged $1 each way for the ferry trip, the state puts up $99 per
vehicle.
A state lawmaker who represents the area, Rep. Bernard LeBas,
says drivers will have to travel an extra 60 miles to cross the
Atchafalaya River without the ferry, a cost he says many people
can't afford.

Posted 15 hours 57 minutes 7 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- The state Board of Elementary and
Secondary Education has proposed a nearly $3.4 billion funding
formula for public school districts that's $72 million more than
the funding proposed by Gov. Bobby Jindal in his budget for next
year.
Jindal proposed standstill funding for the district formula.
In a 6-5 vote Wednesday, BESE instead backed a formula that
contains a boost of 2.75 percent for each public school student.
That's the type of annual increase the school districts had
received for years before the state's budget tightened.
The move shifts the issue to state lawmakers. If they want to
fund BESE's request, they'll have to cut other agencies already
poised to take budget cuts -- or they'll have to find a new source
of cash.

Posted 15 hours 59 minutes 33 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Democratic Senate candidate Bill Halter
says if elected he wouldn't accept any cost-of-living pay raises as
long as there's a federal budget deficit.
Halter on Tuesday said he would oppose any automatic pay raises
and would donate the money to charity if any were approved in
Congress. The Arkansas lieutenant governor is challenging
Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln in the May 18 primary.
Members of the House and Senate under current federal law
receive automatic cost-of-living raises each year, unless they pass
legislation rejecting the raise. Congress rejected a pay raise for
this year.
Halter also said that if elected he'd hold town hall meetings in
all 75 counties, make his schedules available to the public online
and never become a lobbyist after serving in the Senate.

Posted 16 hours 1 minute 45 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor says he's
open to passing health care reforms with a simple majority in the
Senate -- but says it's not his first choice.
The Arkansas senator told reporters Wednesday that he's not
ruling out supporting passing the proposed health care overhauls in
a process known as reconciliation.
Democratic leaders are looking at a two-step approach in which
the House approves a Senate-passed bill from last year, despite
House Democrats' opposition to several provisions. Both houses then
would follow by approving a companion measure to make changes in
the first bill.
Fellow Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas on Tuesday
insisted she is opposed to the simple majority vote, despite saying
she wanted to see what is in the legislation.

Posted 16 hours 3 minutes 9 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, National

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans' support for Congress hasn't
disappeared, but it's getting a lot harder to find, while President
Barack Obama still enjoys a fair amount of backing.
The latest Associated Press-GfK poll found that fewer people
approve of Congress than at any point in Obama's presidency.
Support has dropped significantly since January to 22 percent as
the health care debate has dragged on.
What's more, neither Republicans nor Democrats are safe. Half of
all people surveyed say they want to fire their congressman.
Conversely, Obama's job-performance standing is holding fairly
steady at 53 percent. And over the past two months, he has gained
ground on national security issues like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Posted 16 hours 4 minutes 25 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, National

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The head of the Health and Human Services
Department is sketching out a stark choice for the nation's
insurers: oppose reform and eventually lose customers, or work with
the Obama administration to improve the legislation.
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told health insurers Wednesday that
if overhaul fails, premiums will continue to rise and employers
will cancel coverage. She said the industry may make money in the
short term, but it won't work for Americans and it eventually won't
help insurers.
Sebelius urged the insurers to help create a sustainable market
where all Americans could buy coverage. She said they should spend
the millions that might go to attack ads on reducing the cost of
premiums.
The White House released excerpts of her speech.

Posted 16 hours 8 minutes 14 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, National

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government says unemployment rose in 30
states in January, evidence that jobs remain scarce in most regions
of the country.
The data is somewhat better than December, when 43 states
reported higher unemployment rates, but worse than November, when
rates fell in most states.
Still, five states reported record-high joblessness in January.
They are California, at 12.5 percent; South Carolina, 12.6 percent;
Florida, 11.9 percent; North Carolina, 11.1 percent; and Georgia,
10.4 percent.
Michigan's unemployment rate is still the nation's highest, at
14.3 percent.
Thirty-one states added jobs in January, up from only 11 in the
previous month. But the job gains weren't enough, in many cases, to
lower the unemployment rate.

Posted 16 hours 11 minutes 42 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, National

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government ran up the largest monthly
deficit in history in February, keeping the flood of red ink on
track to top last year's record for the full year.
The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the February deficit
totaled $220.9 billion, 14 percent higher than the previous record
set in February of last year.
The deficit through the first five months of this budget year
totals $651.6 billion, 10.5 percent higher than a year ago.

Posted 16 hours 13 minutes 21 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, National

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate has passed legislation to give
months of continued jobless checks to people who have been out of
work for more than half a year and help the unemployed pay for
health insurance.
The jobless aid accompanies a host of other provisions that
would prevent doctors from absorbing cuts to Medicare payments and
help financially strapped states cope with spiraling Medicaid
bills.
The 62-36 vote Wednesday sends the measure into talks with the
House, which passed companion legislation last year but is wary
about some Senate provisions included to defray its impact on the
deficit.
The bill also extends a variety of tax breaks for businesses and
individuals that are popular with senators in both parties.