Health and Hospitals, higher education face more budget cuts
by Jeff Adelson - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

BATON ROUGE -- Higher education and the Department of Health and Hospitals are facing more cuts as administration officials try to square next year's budget with revenue projections. The cuts were announced Monday afternoon and stem from amendments to the state budget, contained in House Bill 1, including a measure that gives the Division of Administration discretion to come up with $43 million in reductions to the $25.5 billion spending plan. The cuts come after the state Revenue Estimating Conference lowered its projections for next year by $303 million dollars. Overall the health agency is looking at $57 million in reductions in state revenue, which will require the state to forgo about three times that much in federal revenue. Higher education is facing $21 million more in cuts.