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The Louisiana Budget Crisis Poses an Existential Threat to the Southland Conference

The state of Louisiana is over-budgeted by nearly a billion dollars. Vicious cuts to university spending will have a profound impact on the Southland Conference.

Public universities in the state of Louisiana are facing an outright budgeting crisis as the state government finds itself in a budget deficit exceeding $900 million.

Recently-elected governor John Bel Edwards has proposed a solution to the state's budget woes that includes $131 million in budget cuts to public Louisiana universities. While these sweeping reductions in spending can be avoided with the approval of new tax increases, the Republican state legislature seems wholly uncooperative towards Bel Edwards, a Democrat.