Roundup: Louisiana vaccines / Coastal restoration / Job recruiting Â
Twenty-eight percent: Louisiana health officials have administered 119,705 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the past week according to new vaccine statistics released by the Louisiana Department of Health. So far, 1,525,875 people across the state have received at least their first dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines or received the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The state says 1,319,032 people, or about 28% of the stateâs population, have been fully vaccinated. WBRZ-TV has the full rundown on vaccine efforts.Â
Permit violations: The Louisiana Senate approved a bill Wednesday that supporters say ensures money collected for violations of coastal permits is dedicated to coastal restoration. SB122 by Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, would dedicate 75% of any money derived from civil damages related to coastal permits to the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. The other 25% w
Sales tax centralization keeps moving in Senate
A proposal to amend the Louisiana Constitution and centralize sales tax collection in took another step forward Monday.
The Senate’s Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee advanced House Bill 199 by House Speaker Clay Schexnayder without objection, though sticking points remain that likely won’t be resolved in the current session.
Under Louisiana’s unusual system, local officials have control of local sales tax collection, which they have argued ensures they get their money quickly and are able to spend it as local taxpayers and voters want it spent. Business advocates, however, said the system is difficult to navigate for companies that sell in multiple jurisdictions, particularly for small companies or companies from outside the state that are unfamiliar with Louisiana’s complex tax structure.
BATON ROUGE, La. -
 A proposal to amend the Louisiana Constitution and centralize sales tax collection in took another step forward Monday.
Rep. Clay Schexnayder, Speaker of the House McHugh David | The News
The Senateâs Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee advanced House Bill 199 by House Speaker Clay Schexnayder without objection, though sticking points remain that likely wonât be resolved in the current session.
Under Louisianaâs unusual system, local officials have control of local sales tax collection, which they have argued ensures they get their money quickly and are able to spend it as local taxpayers and voters want it spent. Business advocates, however, said the system is difficult to navigate for companies that sell in multiple jurisdictions, particularly for small companies or companies from outside the state that are unfamiliar with Louisianaâs complex tax structure.
how rather than the
how much. If enacted separately, each of the proposed major changes would raise that overall score to 40th, getting Louisiana (barely) out of the bottom 10. If all the proposed changes were implemented, Louisiana would improve to 34th. The proposed changes are:
Lowering individual income tax rates;
Establishing a flat corporate income tax of 6 percent;
Repealing the corporation franchise tax;
Eliminating inventory from the property tax base; and
Centralizing sales tax collections
Louisiana lawmakers will be considering a range of tax reform bills, but the primary effort has been spearheaded by Sen. Brett Allain (R) and Rep. Stuart Bishop (R), who have been facilitating discussions about improving the state tax code and gathering support for their policy priorities. The plan in question aims for revenue-neutral changes that will still improve the state’s competitiveness. Because there are a lot of moving parts to fiscal leadership’s plan, it is worth ou
BATON ROUGE With two weeks of the legislative session complete, Louisiana s Republican legislative leaders have speeded ahead with a rewrite of the state s tax system, but without a clear consensus yet emerging on the precise approach to take.
Across the remaining seven weeks of session, lawmakers will have to settle many hefty, high-dollar issues to strike a deal that overhauls a tax structure seen as outdated, overly complicated and unfair. And they may have to snub some powerful special interest groups to make the numbers work.
Senate President Clay Schexnayder, House Speaker Clay Schexnayder and the heads of the House and Senate tax committees, all Republicans, have demonstrated their commitment to the cause by aggressively scheduling hearings on the bills and starting to move them.