After adjusting for inflation and other factors, Louisiana is bringing in 5% percent less tax revenue than it did in 2008 at the beginning of the Great Recession.
Pew Research finds Louisiana is among the bottom seven states which have not fully recovered from the financial upheaval of decade ago.
UNO Economics Educator Mark Rosa says one major reason is the state budget. "90% of the state's budget is exempt from cuts," Rosa says. "You don't have the fiscal tools that another state might have to stimulate the ecomony in different ways."
But UNO Professor Janet Speyrer says: "We didn't have an expansion straight out of the recession," Speyrer says. "We have a decline in employment from December of '14 to August of '16."
Both feel, one way or another, that the state of education in Louisiana is factor: "We don't have big companies relocating here," Rosa says. "Usually, they're pointing out the secondary school systems are sub-par and to attend the private school system is quite expensive."
"The jobs that are available require very highly skilled workers," Speyrer says. "And our education system is not putting out workers that match the jobs that exist."
