Tax reform legislation fails to win enough votes in the Louisiana House
Democrats block passage of bill to change individual tax rates
The Louisiana Capitol Building, April 8, 2021. (Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator).
A major tax reform measure that proposed new income tax rates and a repeal of the federal income tax deduction on individual state tax returns did not get enough votes in the Louisiana House Wednesday. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Stuart Bishop, said he will try again to pass it at a later date.
The bill received simple majority support, 65-26, but failed to win the two-thirds support required of proposed constitutional amendments. Members voted mostly along party lines, and 14 members seven of them Republicans either did not vote or were absent.
Central pieces of tax swap plan stalled in Louisiana House
MELINDA DESLATTE, Associated Press
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FILE - In this April 12, 2021 file photo, Sen. Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe, talks with Stuart Bishop, R-Lafayette, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, during opening day of the Louisiana legislative session in Baton Rouge, La. Republican House leaders planned to try again Thursday, May 20 to pass a complicated income tax swap that is the centerpiece of a bid to overhaul Louisiana’s tax structure, hoping to salvage the effort as time runs short in the legislative session.Gerald Herbert/AP
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) Republican House leaders planned to try again Thursday to pass a complicated income tax swap that is the centerpiece of a bid to overhaul Louisiana’s tax structure, hoping to salvage the effort as time runs short in the legislative session.
La House gets halfway to advancing major tax swap neworleanscitybusiness.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from neworleanscitybusiness.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
(The Center Square) – With little public discussion and no dissent, the Louisiana House approved a $4.9 billion multiyear construction budget Thursday.
“I’m not Santa Claus,” Lafayette Republican Rep. Stuart Bishop said. “Sometimes, I’m the Grinch.”
Bishop, who as House Ways and Means Committee chair sponsors the annual construction budget found in House Bill 2, said he worked hard to ensure members would get projects to help stimulate the economy in their districts, while using most of the available state surplus. He said he focused on roads and bridges, drinking water, ports and airports.
Bishop said he also prioritized finishing previously funded projects because he didn’t want “engineers or contractors to be hanging out there not being able to be paid.”