It was expected we’d have a monster day on taxes at the Louisiana Legislature.

Here was the agenda…

HB178	TALBOT	TAX/INCOME TAX – Repeals corporation income and franchise taxes (OR -$79,000,000 GF RV See Note)
HB193	GISCLAIR	TAX CREDITS – Provides relative to certain port and harbor activities for purposes of qualifying for the ports of La. tax credit (OR DECREASE GF RV See Note)
HB235	BADON	TAX/TOBACCO TAX – Increases the tax on cigarettes and dedicates a portion of the proceeds of the tax
HB271	GREENE	TAX/INCOME TAX – Provides for a 10-year phase out of the state tax levied on the net income of individuals beginning Jan. 1, 2014 (OR -$78,000,000 GF RV See Note)
HB304	TALBOT	TAX/TOBACCO TAX – Increases the state tax levied on cigarettes (OR +$57,000,000 GF RV See Note)
HB333	TALBOT	TAX/CORP FRANCHISE – Repeals the corporation franchise tax and provisions relative to determining “taxable capital” for purposes of levying the tax (OR -$79,000,000 GF RV See Note)
HB338	RITCHIE	TAX/CORP INCOME – Reduces the rates for corporate income tax
HB379	RITCHIE	TAX/CORP FRANCHISE – Repeals the corporation franchise tax and provisions relative to determining “taxable capital” for purposes of levying the tax
HB394	RITCHIE	TAX/INCOME TAX – Reduces the rates for individual income tax
HB405	RITCHIE	TAX/SALES & USE – Reduces the rate of the state tax levied on the sale, use, consumption, distribution, and storage of certain items of tangible personal property and certain services in La.
HB417	RITCHIE	TAX/TOBACCO TAX – Increases the state tax on certain tobacco products and dedicates the monies
HB505	SEABAUGH	TAX/INCOME TAX – Provides for a 10-year phase out of the state tax levied on the net income of individuals beginning Jan. 1, 2016 (OR -$86,000,000 GF RV See Note)
HB507	IVEY	TAX/INCOME TAX – Provides for a 10-year phase out of the state tax levied on the net income of individuals beginning Jan. 1, 2016 (OR -$86,000,000 GF RV See Note)
HB536	K.JACKSON	TAX/INCOME TAX – (Constitutional Amendment) Requires federal income taxes paid as a deductible item in computing state individual income tax and authorizes the deduction in computing state corporate income tax (OR SEE FISC NOTE GF RV)
HB537	K.JACKSON	TAX/TOBACCO TAX – (Constitutional Amendment) Levies an additional tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products and authorizes the dedication of such monies (OR +$64,000,000 GF RV See Note)
HB586	TALBOT	TAX/INCOME TAX – Changes the rates and brackets of the state tax levied on the net income of individuals to a flat tax (OR -$347,000,000 GF RV See Note)
HB609	K.JACKSON	TAX/INCOME TAX – Reduces the rates for individual income tax (OR -$39,000,000 GF RV See Note)
HB610	TALBOT	TAX/SALES-USE, STATE – Provides relative to services subject to the state sales and use tax
HB623	K.JACKSON	TAX/TOBACCO TAX – Increases the state tax on certain tobacco products (OR +$64,000,000 GF RV See Note)
HB626	K.JACKSON	TAX/CORP INCOME – Reduces the rate for corporate income tax and repeals corporate franchise taxes and federal deductions allowed on net state corporate income tax (OR -$79,000,000 GF RV See Note)
HB632	IVEY	TAX/INCOME TAX – Provides for a 5-year phase out of the state tax levied on the net income of individuals and includes special provisions relating to persons age 65 and older
HB634	SEABAUGH	TAX/CORP INCOME – Phases out corporation income and corporation franchise taxes over a 10-year period (OR -$76,000,000 GF RV See Note)
HB637	IVEY	TAX/CORP INCOME – Phases out the state corporation income and franchise taxes over three years (OR -$103,000,000 GF RV See Note)
HB640	GREENE	TAX/CORP INCOME – Phases-out corporation income and corporation franchise taxes over a 10-year period (OR -$30,000,000 GF RV See Note)
HB669	TALBOT	TAX/INCOME TAX – Provides for a six-year phase out of the state tax levied on the net income of individuals beginning Jan. 1, 2015 (OR -$135,000,000 GF RV See Note)

What was debated?

Well, nothing.

All of the tax bills were deferred. The committee adjourned without doing much of anything.

The video was relatively entertaining nonetheless, though, as Together Louisiana – the newly-formed statewide arm of the Soros-funded and Alinsky-founded Industrial Areas Foundation – dragooned dozens of people to descend on the committee to oppose any income tax relief. And their activists filled out “pink cards” in opposition to the tax bills…only to have wasted their time opposing bills which wouldn’t be heard today.

At least most of them didn’t miss work. There is that.

What’s the future of tax reform at present? Nobody really knows. At this point what’s likely is that the various authors of bills to phase out income tax in Louisiana are going to get together in a room and cobble together something they can all agree on, and that will be THE bill.

When that bill gets to the Ways and Means committee, which could be as early as tomorrow but might not happen at all this session, it’s going to be interesting.

UPDATE: Now the conventional wisdom is that tax reform is dead for this year. At least, that’s what Ways and Means chair Joel Robideaux thinks…

“Unless the committee members have a change of heart, I think its probably dead for this session,” Robideaux, R-Lafayette, said.

A couple of things on this. First, for all the pontificating we continue to hear about the importance of an independent legislature it sure seems like without leadership from the Governor nothing will ever get done. And second, the repeal of the income tax – which is something Louisiana badly needs regardless of the bloviations from the Soros crowd – couldn’t possibly have been handled worse than it has been this year, from top to bottom.

A couple of things wouldn’t be a surprise.

First, Tim Barfield is one of the best corporate numbers guys anywhere, and particularly in Louisiana. Without having a push to reform the state’s tax code on his agenda, he’s wasting his time as Louisiana’s Secretary of Revenue. The question is whether he recognizes that and acts accordingly; if he were to say “Screw this, I’m out of here” nobody should be the least bit shocked. Barfield showed with the effort at tax reform that he’s not a politician – which is no indictment of the man, outside of the fact that he’s in the wrong job and he was asked to do something outside of his skill set. To push income tax reform, Jindal might have been better off getting somebody like Peppi Bruneau or Jim Tucker – a former state legislator whose skill set involves getting a bill passed – than a numbers guy like Barfield. This wasn’t really about numbers at all, despite what anybody says; it was much more about politics.

Second, given the rocky launch of the tax reform plan at the legislature and the rumored bickering between him and the governor’s staff, don’t be shocked if Robideaux isn’t the Ways and Means chair for long.

Dan Juneau noted on Friday that making a big reform to the tax code when budgets are tight is an extremely difficult thing to do. But when there’s a deficit of political capital and the people to do it aren’t in place, it’s impossible.