Public colleges get $18M cut in Edwards deficit-closing plan

BATON ROUGE - Gov. John Bel Edwards is planning an $18 million cut to public colleges to help close a state budget deficit, only months after higher education leaders thought they had escaped reductions.The cut is about 2 percent of colleges' general state financing.But the largest piece of Edwards' proposal to close a more than $300 million gap involves delaying $152 million in payments to health providers that care for Medicaid patients. The payments will be moved into the next fiscal year.Leg