HOUR ONE:
President and Chief Executive Officer Rose Hudson joins us from the Louisiana Lottery. The Louisiana Lottery has a record turnover, the second in the nation. There is over 35% turnover to the state. The lottery made Louisiana $170 million last year. She is also treasurer of the North American State Provincial Lotteries. "Each year we have about 9 million dollars in unclaimed prizes... we give the players money back to them."
She is not allowed to purchase a lottery ticket, nor is anyone on staff at the Louisiana Lottery. Hudson says that the Jindal administration has publicly and rightful said that they will not sell the Louisiana Lottery. "We've given out about 34 million dollars in prizes since 2012."
"We're talking 446 million dollars in revenue," Hudson says in response to how many people play the lottery. Rose Hudson is six feet tall.
Tiger Rag Columnist Marty Mule remembers the legendary Hot Rod Hundley. "I know he always thought that leaving New Orleans was a terrible decision." Hot Rod Hundley was beloved by many.
HOUR TWO:
President of Public Affairs Research Council Robert Travis Scott discusses the Innovation in Louisiana: Maximizing Investment in University Research to Promote a Knowledge-Based Economy. "It's not just an academic problem," Scott says. "Louisiana Tech believe it or not has some of the best metrics in terms of leveraging the most commercial impacts of licenses... their spending is among the lowest in the state." Scott praises LSU's engineering program.
Scott has a degree in International Relations from South Carolina.
The Louisiana Legislative session begins in two weeks. Scott says, "God help us."
"A lot of these movie productions rent studios or people... people come from out of state and they don't stay here," Scott says. He asserts that it is not beneficial to spend state money on a non resident of Louisiana.
"I think he's experiencing a tough way to go," Scott says of Jindal, "we've had both spending and revenue practices that weren't the best."
"There's no question about the fact that he has cut the budget," Scott says, "but when you're this desperate to fill the budget, it doesn't reflect well."
"Jay Dardenne has a long history of really being able to understand a lot of the complexities of the state budget process," Scott says.
Representative Darrell Ourso recently won the Louisiana House seat against Buddy Amoroso by 72 votes. "If we can get the process underway, we can hopefully be driving over that bridge in ten years or less."
"I'm not for federal government taking over education," Ourso says. He feels Common Core is a standard. "We have to really look at the millions of dollars spent... do you start all over?"