Panama, LNG seen as future local port beacons
April 3, 2013
Blythe Computer Solutions offers variety of services
April 3, 2013
All three St. Mary Parish state lawmakers say they are against the portion of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s tax proposal that scraps state income tax returns while raising sales taxes statewide.
However, state Sen Bret Allain (R-Jeanerette) said he favors eliminating corporate, franchise and inventory taxes, which are part of the same tax proposal.
State Reps. Joe Harrison (R-Labadieville) and Sam Jones (D-Franklin) both said they are against the entire proposal.
Jones said the measure would tax everyone from accountants down to grass cutters and kids who put up lemonade stands, and Harrison said the measure would cripple the few businesses left in Assumption Parish, an area he also represents.
Jindal will pitch the idea to state lawmakers during the first legislative session of the year, which begins April 8. It is a fiscal-geared year in the Legislature.
The governor, who is a Republican, is proposing to eliminate all of Louisiana’s income and corporate taxes, which total roughly $6 billion in revenue, and to recoup that revenue with increased sales taxes.
The three lawmakers Harrison, Jones and Allain spoke at a recent St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce Legislative Breakfast.
Harrison, who said the plan “sucks all the air of out of any room,” is 95 pages long and that he had to use four yellow pens to compare all of the areas of the proposal that he said contradict itself.
“The math just doesn’t work for me. It contradicts itself in many, many areas,” he said. “I believe that we need to reduce taxes everywhere we can, but, this is just too expansive.”
Harrison said right now, Louisiana is number two or three in the country, in diversity in taxes assessed.
“What we need to be looking at is the $6 billion in annual tax exemptions we give to corporations and the like – we haven’t look at these. We need to fix our inherent problems, first,” he said.
“There is enough money there. We just need to know where to spend the money properly. We don’t need any more taxes.”
Harrison believes what the state needs is a constitutional convention, because higher education and health care are collapsing, as they are the only two areas that are allowed to be placed on the chopping block, according to the constitution.
“This area is booming as far as our economy goes right now – our biggest challenge is putting workers out there,” he said. “We need to put the emphasis on careers. We have neglected that for many, many years now, and we are paying the price.”
Harrison also objects to the cuts the governor has made to the state Department of Elderly Affairs.
“It’s terrible that we can’t afford $1.25 a day to feed our elderly population, which is now over 1 million in population, and the state boasts itself as having 4 million in population. Yet, we can spend $28.65 a day on a prisoner.
“I believe our priorities are twisted in that area.”
State Rep. Jones, the only Democrat in the St. Mary delegation, said the players in the governor’s tax proposal are “making the rules up as they go, and we’re not going to know what happened until they’re finished.”
Jones said his interpretation is the plan would tax everyone from engineers, to architects, to accountants, even key strokes on the internet.
“And kids won’t be left out, those who cut grass, and those who put up lemonade stands. Good luck on tracking them down, Gov. Jindal!”
Jones said he believes no one will know the final bill until after the state Department of Revenue writes up the rules, should the bill pass the legislature.
“There is even a part of the bill that will give out rebates for people who make $20,000 or less, so that the increase doesn’t place an extra burden on their households; this sounds to me like another welfare plan, and well, don’t we already have one?”
On another matter, Jones said that at the close of the last session, Gov Jindal led everyone to believe that if they didn’t support his budget, many of the state’s population would be living and dying in cardboard boxes under overpasses.
“So, I voted for it – I supported the governor, and I’m known not for doing so. Yet, not even five minutes after we left the session $800 million was mysteriously cut for that budget.”
Now, Jones said the region is paying for the results of that fiscal measure.
“One grave situation we all are experiencing now are the cuts Gov. Jindal made to Chabert Medical Center. For instance, there is one employee working in mental health. … Here’s another – it takes eight months to get a stint done. I had a friend of mine that did not make that – he died two weeks before his appointment.”
Jones said the governor still has not faced the fact that a large population of Louisiana’s residents cannot afford health insurance. Yet, he said, Gov. Jindal has destroyed something that persons with no insurance have relied on – a charity hospital system that has survived through revolutions, depressions, and world wars.
“And despite his destruction of our public hospital system that dates back to the 1700s, he felt it was oOK to give Tom Benson $40 million to buy the New Orleans Hornets.
“Turn on a game and watch it. There are 9,000 empty seats in the arena, and 2,000 that are filled. Yet, you, the taxpayer, are paying for Mr. Benson to have that commodity – it’s in his contract with the state. You can read it.”
Allain said that while he is against the portion of the tax proposal to eliminate Individual state income tax returns, he is for corporate, franchise and inventory returns being eliminated, because it only generates about $300,000 of the state’s $6 billion in state and income tax revenue.
“We are ranked 34th in the nation as far as tax fairness to businesses is concerned. I think if those were eliminated, we would be ranked in the top 10,” he said.
The senator also commented on two of the bills he is planning to bring before the state legislature, one regarding Citizen’s Insurance and the other regarding an increase in taxes state municipalities would plan to bring before their respective citizens.
Allain said Citizens would be required to bring any future increases they plan that are more than 25 percent before the state legislature in order to gain approval.
He cited that last year, Citizens raised St. Mary property owners policies with a 171 percent increase.
Citizens is the state’s insurance policy, afforded to homeowners who cannot afford insurance through their regular provider. “It’s an insurance of last resort.”
Another bill he is proposing would require any taxing authority within the state to bring any increase in taxes before its constituents 30 days in advance before they can approve any sort of ordinance.
State Representative Joe Harrison speaks to an audience this week. Harrison is one of many local lawmakers who say that they do not support the portion of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s tax system proposal that scraps state income tax.
