Alford: Tax reform easier said than done
This week marks the midpoint of the Louisiana Legislature’s regular session, so lawmakers are halfway to somewhere. I wish I could offer a more precise big-picture snapshot of the session, but a review of the leadership’s top priorities offers a mixed bag of progress.
While the budget package has exited the House and is on the move, there are a few lingering issues that still need to be addressed. Conservatives in the lower chamber are still fighting to limit the amount of one-dollars spent on recurring expenses and political players of all stripes are working hard to carve up the federal stimulus pie for various purposes.
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lawmakers will have to settle many hefty, high-dollar issues to strike a deal that overhauls a tax structure seen as outdated, overly complicated and unfair.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.
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