Posted on 04/23/2008 5:12:30 PM PDT by abb
BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Senate's tax committee on Monday approved a big income-tax break, despite objections from Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration that the state can't afford the $302 million loss of revenue.
The bill by Sen. Buddy Shaw would restore tax brackets that were changed as part of the so-called "Stelly plan" approved by voters in 2002. Under the bill, people who make between $12,500 and $50,000 would move from the 6 percent tax bracket down to the 4 percent bracket.
Shaw said he filed the measure because he received so many complaints from voters about paying bigger tax bills after the Stelly plan went into effect in 2003.
"The thing that I heard more than anything else ... was what the Stelly tax had done to them, that it really was a terrible thing for them," said Shaw, R-Shreveport.
The committee voted to send the measure to the Senate floor despite warnings from a Jindal budget adviser that the state can't afford to lose the roughly $302 million in revenue in the 2008-09 fiscal year, followed by amounts between $250 million and $300 million the next few years. Over five years, the state would lose a total of $1.39 billion in revenue, according to estimates from the Legislative Fiscal Office.
"This one is just out of the range of anything we could possibly handle," said John Carpenter, of the governor's budget office.
Shaw's bill is lawmakers' latest attempt to reverse all or part of the Stelly plan, which was aimed at reducing the tax burden on lower-income taxpayers and raising it on higher-income taxpayers. The constitutional amendment was named after its chief backer, former Rep. Vic Stelly, R-Lake Charles.
He was Rush Limbaugh’s Reaganesque conservative. How could this happen???? **eye roll***
Unlike the Federal Government, states cannot deficit spend indefinitely. The only way to lower state taxes is to lower spending.
Tax cuts without spending cuts is bad business. Is there $300 million that can be cut from the budget?
I met Jindal once years ago. A real wordsmith.
No doubt he’s much better for us than MeeMaw, but it is now clear he’s another “Big Government” conservative.
We’re going to cram this tax cut up his ass.
Baton Rouge is awash in money. The state is rolling in dough from high oil severance taxes.
ping
Yeah, really. Assuming this is a dynamic actual reduction in gov’t revenues, it’s not at all clear that the government will reduce the extra rev that came in from this. I mean, the goal should be to FIND cuts to make.
And there should be a constant review of what can be trimmed, improved in terms of efficiency, privatized, etc. However, if people will not get off the tit then Jindal has his hands tied.
No his hands aren’t tied. He told us he would cut spending and taxes in his campaign.
So far, that’s not happened. So we’re going to call him on it. Today, according to information we just got, three prominent Democrat state senators have pledged support for this bill.
It will be voted on by the full senate next Tuesday.
Five years ago the state budget was $16 billion. Now it’s $30 billion.
I’m sick of these bastards saying they ain’t got money for tax cuts.
We’re taking our money back.
The state budget of Louisiana has approximately doubled in the past five years.
Jindal said that was all going to stop when he was elected. Spending and tax cuts, he said. We’re into the third legislative session of his administration and now he’s crawfishing.
Some would say he lied.
I want my money back.
It’s that simple.
There is a proper level of taxation. (If you don’t believe that, you can stop reading now).
So, the question is, are the La. Taxes currently above that proper level? If so, they should be cut. If they are BELOW the proper level they should be raised, and if they are about right, they should not be changed.
When taxes are too high, cutting taxes can raise revenue. But don’t be fooled — if you keep cutting taxes, you will lose revenue, and if you cut them enough, you will not be able to perform the constitutional duties of government.
I have no idea what state the Louisiana government spending is in. I know that the state seems to be in sorry shape, that their government doesn’t seem to function, and that they were ill-prepared to handle hurricanes that are most likely to happen again.
So I can’t fault Jindal for opposing a tax cut if he doesn’t think the government can perform the functions it is SUPPOSED to do if the revenue is lost.
Now, as a practical matter, there are few states I imagine that are undertaxing, or properly taxing, their people. But I don’t know about that particular state.
He took over in January, and they have already had 3 legislative sessions?
In Virginia, we have a 2-month session on year, and a 3-month session the other year of a biennial budget schedule. They also have 1-day sessions to handle vetoes.
THe legislature is a part-time job — you can’t live on the money paid.
Here are the numbers. The facts speak for themselves.
http://senate.legis.louisiana.gov/FiscalServices/Publications.htm
They’ve doubled spending in five years. Louisiana government is too big and takes too much of our money.
They are in the regular session now. They had two special sessions earlier in the year.
One was to address ‘ethics reform’ which we now find out was a sham. They increased the burden of proof for ethics violations which effectively de-fanged existing ethics laws.
Let’s see the WHOLE bill before we all jump on the Bandwagon.
The Governor may have reasons for curtailing certain provisions within the bill.
Having lived in a Democrat run.... stick the pork in the bill.. and hire the Relatives State.
If he has no line by line veto, could be a bad deal.
just sayin’...
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