Economic recovery taskforce vice-chair discusses policy recommendations for Louisiana

The Louisiana Economic Recovery Taskforce has been charged with coming up with policy recommendations for state legislatures amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Joel Robideaux, a financial analyst who has previously served as the Mayor-President of Lafayette, is the Vice-Chair of the taskforce.

He said their policy recommendations include everything from providing tax incentives for small businesses to ensuring adequate federal assistance is used for COVID-19 testing.

Robideaux said providing adequate testing is an important aspect of giving consumers their confidence back.

"If that confidence doesn't exist, then this economy is going to be really slow in a long, difficult period," said Robideaux.

That confidence isn't just important for Louisiana natives. He said they also want to ensure travelers feel safe in the state.

"A large part of the economy does come from outside of the state, so we need to make it to where everyone feels like Louisiana is a safe place to come and transact business," he said.

However, Robideaux said he doesn't think there is any one thing they can do that's more important than ensuring broadband internet is available everywhere.

"It really is, to me, something that's going to move Louisiana forward or set us back. Doing nothing is not really an option because we're just going fall further and further behind," he said.

He said they're encouraging legislation that would remove restrictions that make it difficult to introduce broadband to new areas of the state.

"Business is transacted over the internet. A lot of the future of sales and product sales are going to occur over the internet, less and less brick and mortar. So we want to ensure that all corners of the state have the same access to that that the rest of the country does," he said.

To read more about the taskforce,

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