Latest news with #LouisianaSenateFinanceCommittee
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Louisiana set to spend at least $7 million to bring Saudi-owned LIV Golf to New Orleans
Louisiana is likely to spend at least $7 million in public funding to attract a Saudi-owned LIV Golf tournament to New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Trotman/LIV Golf) The Louisiana Legislature looks likely to spend at least $7 million of the state's public money to bring the controversial LIV Golf League tour, owned by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to New Orleans next summer. The Louisiana Senate Finance Committee inserted the golf tournament spending into the proposed $49 billion state operating budget Sunday. Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said the Louisiana Economic Development agency, overseen by Gov. Jeff Landry, requested the money. Of the money Louisiana is putting up for the LIV Golf event, at least $2 million would be spent to upgrade the Bayou Oaks golf course at New Orleans City Park, where the tournament would be held. Another $5 million would be given directly to LIV Golf as a hosting fee, Henry said in an interview with reporters Sunday night. Henry said the money is going to help 'get the course up and running for a LIV quality event.' In exchange for the money, Henry said the LIV Golf event is expected to generate about $60 million in spending for New Orleans. The tournament would be held in June or July 2026, at a time of year when city tourism is down and the hospitality industry is typically struggling. 'It'll drive significant economic activity at a time when the city is usually pretty slow,' he said. News of a LIV Golf tournament coming to New Orleans was first reported by WDSU-TV in March. LIV's owner, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, is one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world with nearly $1 trillion in assets. Saudi Prime Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman controls the money and the fund started LIV Golf in 2021 to compete with the PGA Tour, the preeminent professional league based in the U.S. The new tour has been seen as an effort by Saudi Arabia to 'whitewash' the country's record on human rights. After becoming the de facto Saudi leader eight years ago, the crown prince enacted more liberal policies for women – they gained the privilege of driving in 2018 – but has engaged in a wirdespread crackdown on dissidents and critics of the Saudi government, according to a Human Rights Watch report. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Prince Mohammed's personal reputation was also damaged in 2018 when Saudi officials killed U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi while he was visiting a Saudi consulate in Turkey to get documents for his upcoming marriage. Khashoggi had been critical of Prince Mohammed in his monthly columns for The Washington Post, and U.S. intelligence officials concluded the crown prince was involved in Khashoggi's death, according to the Associated Press. LIV Golf's debut upended the golf world in 2022. With its vast resources, Saudi Arabia's leadership offered pro golfers far larger sums of money than the PGA tour could afford, including multimillion-dollar signing bonuses that led some of the sport's biggest stars to leave the PGA Tour. Yet for all of its assets, LIV has not succeeded in making much of a dent with the PGA Tour audience of late. Its television ratings have been a fraction of what the PGA has garnered this year, according to Talks of merging the LIV Golf League and the PGA Tour have stalled in spite of President Donald Trump personally encouraging the deal. Louisiana is trying to sign a multi-year contract with LIV for the City Park tournament, but the state's $7 million allocation would be devoted mostly to the first year of expenses in 2026, Henry said. Some of the Landry administration's enthusiasm for LIV Golf League might be related to Trump, who considers Prince Mohammed a personal friend and who the Louisiana governor is eager to please. Trump's private golf resort in Doral, Florida, was the site of LIV Golf League tournament the president personally attended earlier this year. One of the president's first trips abroad since returning to office was to Saudi Arabia for meetings with Prince Mohammed last month. Trump made a similar trip early in his first term. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The $7 million Louisiana is putting toward the LIV golf tournament comes from the state's major events incentive fund, which provides public funding for large tourist attractions. In the past, it has been used to lure the Super Bowl, Essence Festival and NCAA Final Four for men's basketball to Louisiana. Other events getting money from the fund in the proposed state budget for the year that starts July 1 include the U.S. Bowling Congress Tournament ($5 million), an Ultimate Fighting Championship event ($1.5 million), the 2026 Southeastern Conference Gymnastics Championship ($750,000), the U.S. Gymnastics National Championships in New Orleans this August ($750,000), the Barksdale Defenders of Liberty Air Show ($500,000) and the State Fair of Louisiana in Shreveport ($100,000). Another $250,000 in public funding from a Jefferson Parish tourism promotion account is also going to the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a decades-old PGA Tour event held each spring at the TPC Louisiana golf course in Avondale.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Effort blocked to move more Louisiana teenagers from juvenile to adult courts
A Louisiana Senate committee blocked legislation backed by Attorney General Liz Murrill that could have moved thousands of cases from juvenile to adult court. (Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator) After outcry from several corners of the legal community, Louisiana lawmakers scuttled a controversial proposal backed by Attorney General Liz Murrill that could have moved thousands of criminal cases involving children and teenagers from juvenile to adult courts every year. The Louisiana Senate Finance Committee voted 6-5 Monday to reject Senate Bill 74 by Sen. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport. The committee's decision came a few weeks after state voters overwhelmingly rejected a similar constitutional amendment. The legislation would have mostly affected Orleans, Jefferson, East Baton Rouge and Caddo parishes, where juvenile courts operate separately from district courts. Larry Frieman, chief deputy attorney general, told senators the bill was crafted specifically to address New Orleans juvenile court judges who are too lenient on the teens and children who come before them. 'They are one of the ones that have created this problem that we are trying to fix,' Frieman said. Pushback for the bill came from a wide swath of people involved in the criminal justice system who often aren't aligned with each other. District attorneys, public defenders, judges and anti-incarceration groups all spoke out against the proposal. 'The logistics of it are not as simple as everyone seems to think,' said Kyla Romanach, chief public defender for East Baton Rouge Parish, who opposed the legislation. Had it been approved, the bill would have allowed district attorneys and the attorney general to transfer 15- and 16-year-olds accused of felony crimes from juvenile courts to state district courts that mostly handle adult cases. District attorneys and the attorney general also would have gained the ability to move cases involving children under 15 accused of any crime, misdemeanor or felony, from juvenile courts to city and parish courts that focus on adult cases. District attorneys can already move 14-, 15-, and 16-year-olds into the adult criminal justice system, but only when they are accused of the most serious crimes such as murder, manslaughter and rape. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE The Louisiana Legislature also passed a statute last year that reclassifies all 17-year-olds as adults in the eyes of the criminal justice system. They are automatically tried in adult court and face adult prison sentences. The attorney general's failed legislation would have further blurred the lines between punishments for adults and minors in Louisiana, though the additional children and teenagers transferred from juvenile to adult courts under the bill would have been subjected to juvenile law standards, Frieman said. Judges, prosecutors and public defenders from the four parishes with juvenile courts indicated the attorney general's proposal would cost their courthouses and offices hundreds of thousands of dollars each. District attorneys and public defenders from East Baton Rouge, Jefferson and Caddo all said they would have to hire more staff to track cases in juvenile and district court if the legislation had been approved. Federal and state law also require minors to be separated from adult detainees. District courthouses in the four affected parishes don't have the appropriate accommodations for minors and would have had to retrofit their buildings. East Baton Rouge judges said the changes they would have to undertake at their courthouse would have cost between $3 million and $10 million, according to a legislative financial analysis. Legislators initially delayed a vote on the bill last week over questions about the accuracy of the fiscal review attached to it. An earlier version didn't have as many of the potential costs included, in part, because State Public Defender Rémy Starns told the legislative staff to disregard information provided by his office. Daniel Druilhet, a member of the Legislative Fiscal Office staff, said Starns asked him to ignore any costs public defenders had initially said would be associated with the bill when drafting the fiscal review. '[W]hile I did receive an initial response from the Office of the State Public Defender, including information from those four jurisdictions related to potential costs, I was contacted by Mr. Starns on May 2, 2025, instructing me not to include that cost in the fiscal note,' Druilhet told senators at a public hearing last week. In response to Druilhet's comments, the senators put off a vote on the matter for a week so a new financial write-up could be put together. Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews, D-Monroe, chastised Starns for intervening in the legislative process. 'I want our state employees to understand there's not a time when they can tell our fiscal office not to consider costs that have been submitted,' she said after Druilhet's testimony. Starns told Jackson he had decided, after an amendment was added to the legislation, that the expenses his office had turned over to the fiscal office were no longer relevant. Starns has been working closely with the attorney general on other criminal justice bills filed this session that would give Starns more authority over local public defender office budgets and personnel. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
