Posted on 05/13/2008 1:33:02 AM PDT by abb
Behind-the-scenes negotiations are under way at the State Capitol to scuttle a proposal that would gradually eliminate the state income tax, lawmakers said Monday.
As an alternative, the Jindal administration and the legislative leadership suggested a $302 million tax break, said state Sen. Buddy Shaw, R-Shreveport.
The suggestion is identical to the way Shaw originally drafted Senate Bill 87 with one distinction.
The alternative proposal is to phase in the tax break over two years beginning in 2009, a delay that Shaw opposes.
Shaw said he does not want taxpayers to have to wait until 2010 — when they file their returns for the previous year — to receive tax relief.
Shaw said he and Jindal agree that lawmakers should strip from the bill an amendment that would gradually eliminate the state income tax.
As it stands now, SB87 eventually would cut $4 billion a year from state coffers by eliminating the state personal income tax by 2017. Gov. Bobby Jindal did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
But Jindal said last week that tax breaks must be accompanied by spending cuts.
“The governor supports tax cuts. He hasn’t spoken to Senator Shaw yet, but is open to a variety of solutions,” Jindal’s press secretary, Melissa Sellers, wrote in an e-mail.
Until a resolution is reached, the House Ways and Means Committee is delaying a decision on SB87.
It marked the second time in five days that the committee postponed a vote on the legislation.
“We need to get tax relief to the taxpayers,” said state Rep. Hunter Greene, the committee’s chairman. “We’ve got to make sure that we have the money there to do that and to see what the alternatives are.”
State Sen. Nick Gautreaux, D-Meaux, has a different take on the delay.
Gautreaux sponsored the amendment in the Senate that would get rid of the state income tax.
“They keep delaying it because they don’t have enough votes to strip the amendment,” he said.
Greene, R-Baton Rouge, assured the House Ways and Means Committee Monday that SB87 will be heard.
A day earlier, on Mother’s Day, Greene informally polled members of the House about what type of tax cut they would prefer.
House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Terrytown, said the likelihood that the House will abolish the state income tax is declining.
However, he said, he expects some form of long-term tax relief to emerge from the legislative session, which ends on June 23.
“We’re not interested in one-time. It will be recurring,” Tucker said.
SB87 originated as legislation that would revise some of the income tax brackets the Stelly plan changed.
The Stelly plan, named for the former legislator who drew up the measure, phased out state sales taxes on necessities while increasing income taxes for some wage earners.
Stelly divided wage earners into three tax brackets.
For individual filers, those brackets are:
* Income up to $12,500 is taxed at 2 percent. * Income from $12,500 to $25,000 is taxed at 4 percent. * Income over $25,000 is taxed at 6 percent.
The thresholds are doubled for joint filers.
SB87 would tax individuals who make between $12,500 and $50,000 at 4 percent.
Shaw said he wants the relief to be immediate rather than delayed.
http://www.americanpress.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2619&Itemid=105
Income-tax vote delayed (5/13)
Multimedia
By JIM BEAM
AMERICAN PRESS
BATON ROUGE — An anxiously awaited committee vote on a proposed state income tax cut was put off again here today, but the House Ways and Means Committee chairman said the issue isn’t dead.
Rep. Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge, said it is his preference that the state income tax be eliminated altogether. That is how Senate Bill 87 left the upper chamber, and it is still in that posture.
Greene said the feedback he has received from his constituents agrees with his position.
Lawmakers have to adjourn by June 23, and Greene said that still leaves plenty of time to take action.
“We need relief for taxpayers,” Greene said.
However, Greene said there needs to be additional time for discussion and agreement on how to proceed with the tax break. He said it has to be determined whether the money is there to handle the tax cut.
Gov. Bobby Jindal hasn’t taken a stand on the proposed tax break, but he said any tax cuts would have to be accompanied with a similar amount of budget reductions.
Sen. Buddy Shaw, R-Shreveport, is author of SB 87, and it was a simple, one-page bill. Shaw wants to roll back state income tax increases enacted in 2002 when the Stelly Plan was approved.
Former Rep. Vic Stelly, a Moss Bluff independent, sponsored the plan as a way to eliminate onerous state sales taxes on food, prescription drugs and utilities. In exchange for removing those taxes, state income tax brackets were lowered to make up for lost sales tax revenues.
The state has enjoyed record revenues since hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Shaw said that makes it possible to restore the tax brackets to where they were before the Stelly Plan became law.
A spokesman for Gov. Jindal opposed Shaw’s bill in a Senate committee, saying the $302 million cost was too much to absorb at one time. Shaw said that opposition surfaced on the Senate floor and three amendments were drafted in an effort to derail the bill.
Meanwhile, Sen. Nick Gautreaux, D-Abbeville, came with a different amendment that phases out all of the state income tax over a 10-year period. It would eventually cost the state $4 billion a year by 2017.
Senators approved the amendment with a 19-18 vote and an effort to remove the amendment failed. The bill finally passed the Senate unanimously with 36 senators signed on as co-authors.
Shaw’s bill was heard by the Ways and Means Committee last Thursday, but Greene noted at the start that a vote would be delayed until Monday.
Shaw said he preferred that the Gautreaux amendment be removed by the House to restore his measure to its original form. However, he said he will push for passage either way.
Oh, yeah, let’s keep the state income tax - we can observe how well states that tax income do (e.g. La, Ms) and how poorly states that do not do (e.g. Tx, Fl). The jury is still out on this kid and I voted for him every time.
I am afraid Bobby Jindal is not as advertised. I too voted for him.
http://forgotston.com/2008/05/08/jindal-no-tax-cuts/
Jindal: No tax cuts! Thursday, May 8 2008
1 CB 7:38 am
Governor Bobby Jindal issued a press release yesterday about the use of the hundreds of millions in additional state revenues that will be reported on Friday by the Revenue Estimating Conference. (See release here.) That makes one question the independence of the REC since Jindal already knows the outcome.
As I understand Governor Jindal’s release, while calling for the leges to “curb spending,” he is calling for “investing” (government-speakfor “spend”) the new revenues.
Say what!
If I am to believe what the media has been reporting, it is the leges who have been attempting to “curb spending” by reducing the governor’s proposed state budget. It is the governor’s staff who is opposing their efforts. Perhaps the media has it backwards.
Building up surpluses
There is some merit to Jindal’s comments about replacing one-time dollars with recurring dollars. That is exactly what some members of the lege are attempting to do by reducing Jindal’s proposed state budget.
However, what Jindal does with the excess revenues doesn’t make any sense for one who claims to be a fiscal conservative who wants less government and money given back to the people.
Jindal says the state needs to build up a SURPLUS.
The state already has billions of dollars sitting in various “savings accounts” such as the proceeds from the “Tobacco Settlement” and the “Rainy Day Fund.”
One of the basic principles of government financing is that it should only take (i.e.,taxes and fees) from the citizens/taxpayers what is necessary to provide services for the citizens.
Jindal wants to premeditatedly take more money from the taxpayers than is necessary to run government to provide for “unanticipated needs that may arise in the future.” That sounds like an unconstitutional contingency fund. (See LA Const. Article III, Section 16(A))
No tax cuts!
Finally, for those who are still in doubt that Governor Jindal is behind the efforts to derail an effort to give some form of Personal Income Tax relief this session, this press release should disabuse them of that notion.
There is no money for tax reductions. Just the opposite. Jindal wants ALL of the state’s revenues to either spent on or saved for GOVERNMENT.
Throwing Bobby Jindal under the bus already. Faux conservative. Humph. And now we stand around and wonder stupidly why the GOP has ignored us conservatives and gone with McLame.
If you take the time to follow this particular debate now ongoing here in Louisiana, you will see quite plainly that Bobby Jindal is not as advertised.
The facts speak for themselves.
Maybe if all the states had 400-member legislatures and elected their governors every 2 years like we do here in NH, you wouldn’t have either a sales or and income tax and things would be more prosperous.
Not to brag or anything. /s
2. Was the amendment to end the income tax introduced by a conservative, or was it introduced by a liberal Democrat for nefarious reasons?
Looks like Jindal is going to be Louisiana’s maverick ala McCain. Jindal, who I voted for, was the best candidate running, but he was no conservative on tax issues. He said, during his first run for governor, that he wouldn’t repeal the Stelly bill. Thanks Bobby. I guess you can use the $1,000 better than I can. What next. Global warming changes like McCain is talking about?
Looks like Jindal is going to be Louisiana’s maverick ala McCain. Jindal, who I voted for, was the best candidate running, but he was no conservative on tax issues. He said, during his first run for governor, that he wouldn’t repeal the Stelly bill. Thanks Bobby. I guess you can use the $1,000 better than I can. What next? Global warming changes like McCain is talking about?
Otherwise, the state is throwing out money at this crap.
From The Advocate:
$75,000 for the city of Zachary for an economic development master plan.
$50,000 to the city of Central for economic development planning.
$25,000 for the Louisiana Arts and Science Museum operations.
$100,000 to improve the intersection at Florida and Sherwood Forest boulevards.
$400,000 to improve Coursey Boulevard between Airline Highway and Jones Creek Road.
$100,000 to improve the intersection at Jones Creek Road and Coursey Boulevard.
$25,000 for equipment for the Baton Rouge Fire Department.
$75,000 for the Pride Fire Department.
$50,000 for park improvements for the city of Denham Springs.
$50,000 to the McKinley High School Alumni Association for youth outreach activities.
$20,000 to the American Muslim Mission of Baton Rouge for a year-round farmers market in old south Baton Rouge.
What kind of water are they drinking in Baton Rouge? Representitives gone wild.
Does the GOP control both House and Senate in LA, since I saw that the House Speaker is an R? For me, it’s late and I need to go to bed, but I’m trying to see where one can blame Jindal for this particular bill stalling.
On second thought, I nearly fell asleep on my laptop so I’m going to reread this in the morning and hopefully I’ll get it on the second try. ;)
While you are correct that here in Texas there is no state income tax on personal income, I must mention that the state charges a ‘fee’ for just about everything except breathing. Also for businesses, there is a hefty ‘franchise’ tax which is assessed on a business’s revenue stream. This is a ‘de facto’ income tax on business.
For a business of any significant size, keeping up with the assorted fees & taxes that must be paid monthly, quarterly, ad nauseum requires a CPA. My CPA calls this activity the ‘Texas CPA Full Employment Act’.
It seems to me reasonable to cut spending too.....otherwize, funding will be found by taxing in some other method...and you'll be back where you started....
talk radio in Tennesee was very powerful a couple of years ago...
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=571
I guess we can expect a relentless posting of “Jindal is no conservative” from abb till people just give up arguing.
Bobby is the man!
He’s a lot better than Maw Maw.
Or until the scales fall from their eyes...
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