With the legislative session just a few days away, Gov. Bobby Jindal was still pitching his tax reform plan on Thursday, this time to a room full of north shore business leaders in St. Tammany Parish where the governor has historically enjoyed widespread political support. Jindal repeated his argument that eliminating personal income and corporate taxes would make Louisiana...
With the legislative session just a few days away, Gov. Bobby Jindal was still pitching his tax reform plan on Thursday, this time to a room full of north shore business leaders in St. Tammany Parish where the governor has historically enjoyed widespread political support. Jindal repeated his argument that eliminating personal income and corporate taxes would make Louisiana a more fierce economic competitor and help families of all incomes.
"Our tax system is unfair and it is riddled with loopholes and exemptions," Jindal said. "We need a tax system where the powerful special interest groups are no longer able to rig the system."
The proposal, first announced by the Jindal administration in January, raises the state sales tax from 4 percent to 6.25 percent, eliminates 200 exemptions, and includes a rebate for middle- and low-income residents along with some retirees and military families. At first, the Jindal administration estimated the sales tax increase at 5.88 percent, but revised that figure upward last month.
The administration plans to push the plan during the 2013 legislative session that opens Monday. In recent weeks, Jindal has traveled the state, carrying his message to Alexandria, Shreveport, the West Bank and most recently, Thursday's stop at the Tchefuncte Country Club in Covington. The lunch was organized by the St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce's Northshore Legislative Alliance.
After the speech, Northshore Business Council Executive Director Larry Rase said his organization has not taken a position on the proposal so far because the drafted legislation has yet to be released. In general, he said, the council has been supportive of the Jindal administration. "We're all very, very interested in actually seeing the bill," Rase said.
The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry came out against the plan last week after the Jindal administration said the reforms would increase taxes on businesses by about $500 million.
Jindal disputed opponents' arguments that the proposed reform would hurt poor people. "Taxing people on what they spend instead of what they earn gives them more control over their own money," he said.
Meanwhile, he said, the reforms would make the state competitive with the nearby income tax-free states of Florida and Texas, where many Louisianians have moved in pursuit of better economic opportunities.
"You go to Dallas, you go to Houston, and there are entire neighborhoods that are filled with our neighbors from Louisiana," Jindal said. "There are more purple and gold flags in some of those cities than there are here in Louisiana."
After the governor's speech, Kieran J. Weldon, president of Covington-based architecture firm Fauntleroy Latham Weldon Barré, said he was concerned about how professional firms like his own will be affected under a new tax code.
According to the Jindal administration, sales taxes would be expanded to some professional services, although some services -- such as health care or law firms -- would be exempt.
Weldon said all firms not exempted would be forced to pass along those costs to clients. But, he said, he was encouraged after the governor told him that such exemptions are still negotiable in the policy.
Overall, Weldon said, he supports the plan "in the broad strokes, 100 percent."