A bill that if passed would eventually eliminate personal and corporate income tax in Louisiana is up for a full debate in the state Senate this afternoon, carrying with it a lengthy list of other complex tax issues that likely won’t be tackled before the Legislature wraps up.
The Times-Picayune reports that state Sen. Rob Marionneaux has faced strategic political moves by his colleagues to defer the bill since he first introduced Senate Bill 259, which would completely phase out income taxes in the state by 2023.
To make up for the revenue the state would lose by eliminating the state income tax, the Livonia Democrat has proposed ridding the state’s tax code of the countless controversial tax breaks already in place:
Marionneaux said one of his options will include reducing or eliminating specific tax breaks from 2013-2015 to correspond with the income tax cut, estimated to be $133 million the first year and about $1.7 billion by year three. “That would give a future Legislature and a future administration the choice of how to proceed,” Marionneaux said.
At the other end of the spectrum, the senator said, is a more across-the-board approach, slicing virtually all of the existing exemptions, deductions, credits and rebates until they are eliminated. Those policies amount to more than $7 billion in lost revenue annually, though that number includes all the income tax breaks that would become moot under a phaseout.
In an accompanying editorial published today, The Times-Pic’s Stephanie Grace says although exploring the numerous tax breaks on the books is a positive move, it’s a bad time to have “serious” discussions on how to do so.
Aside from the loads of lobbies that would emerge during such debate, also at issue is Gov. Bobby Jindal, who doesn’t support a repeal of income taxes that ideologically would seem to fit his strong anti-tax sentiment:
Much of Marionneaux’s support stems not so much from a desire to start that serious discussion just as the session is entering its frantic last weeks, but from political mischief aimed at Gov. Bobby Jindal, who opposes the idea but clearly doesn’t want to become the face of opposition to a giant tax cut.
If Jindal finds his position uncomfortable, it’s at least partly his own fault.
Staring at a $1.6 billion shortfall before the session, lawmakers from across the spectrum hoped to find some potential revenue hidden away in the [tax] exemption roster. But Jindal, who said he wouldn’t support any tax increase at all, stopped that discussion cold by lumping elimination of exemptions into the same category as tax increases.
It’s too late to reverse course this session, but that doesn’t mean the conversation should end ... This is an area that’s due for some good old-fashioned studying — by politicians looking to solve problems rather than make stands.
Read more on Marionneaux’s bill here and here.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
Most Read
in case you missed it
Subscribe to this comment's feed
------------------
A wonderful idea. Exceptions (tax breaks) are the bane of tax code, State and Federal. One man's tax break is another's loop hole resulting in a tax rule mess. Start with those foolish sales tax holidays.