The big news over the past week has been Governor Jeff Landry’s proposed tax reform plan.  That plan has been released along with the announcement of potentially another special session after the elections to try and get the tax reform plan passed through the legislature.  First, let me lay a little groundwork for what I am about to write.  I have not seen a copy or read through this plan in detail.  I have listened to the governor discuss it, as well as some other politicians, and have done some reading on it.  And to be fair, there is a lot of good stuff in what I have seen so far.  It reduces personal income taxes, flattens business income taxes, and eliminates some business taxes, etc.  But I have some major problems with this plan also, and they are not things that can be easily overcome.

First and foremost, Governor Landry’s plan extends the temporary 0.45% sales tax.  Unfortunately, as far as I am concerned, our state government (no matter who sits in what chair) has absolutely zero credibility in any promise to eventually eliminate this tax.  Let’s jump back in time to where this all started.  This began in 2016 as a 1% temporary tax that was only supposed to last two years to address a supposed fiscal cliff.  That is the government’s favorite term to make excuses for taxing you and me unnecessarily.  When that 1% tax expired in 2018, our Republican controlled legislature did us a huge favor (sarcasm intended) and only renewed 0.45% for seven years.  Seven years!!!  So now, a two-year temporary tax is nine years old and about to be extended again.

The total state budget in the 2018 fiscal year was just a shade under $30 billion dollars.  The 2024 budget was $50 billion dollars.  Let that soak in for a minute.  Your state government told you that that 1% tax was needed for a crisis but was only going to be for 2 years.  Then they told you that they had yet another crisis and they needed to keep half of it for another 7 years.  And during that period, when they were facing those fiscal cliffs, they added about 60% to their budget.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have not had the opportunity to add 60% to my budget since 2018, and I feel like I am facing a fiscal cliff every day.

Now they want us to believe that if we let them keep that 0.45% sales tax just a little while longer (I haven’t seen how long, only that the plan extends the tax), they will eventually give it back to us.  Pardon me if I am just a tad bit skeptical at this point.  Like the proverbial “carrot on a stick”, the end of that tax is always just ahead of us.

Now, before you tell me that was under John Bel Edwards regime, let me remind you that we had a Republican controlled house and senate throughout those years.  They could have put a stop to the insanity at any time, but in eight years they never found the political will to do so.  We all hope that this new legislature will be different, and we have seen some good signs.  But we have also seen them cave on some important items.  Particularly in the Senate (anyone remember how they removed themselves from the closed primary bill?).  In all honesty, at this point the senate only appears marginally better than it was under Page Cortez, and it certainly has not lived up to our expectations of change.  So don’t expect any great show of conservative willpower from Cameron Henry and crew.  Republican led legislatures have been disappointing the people who elected them for years.  They are not going to gain credibility in a few months.  Speaking for myself, I am going to have to see them walk the walk for an extended amount (Years?  Decades?) of time before I am willing to give them any trust.

The history of our state government is that they raise our taxes now with the promise that down the road they will lower them, once we get past the current crisis.  But somehow there is always another crisis and the lowering or elimination of taxes never happens.  This has been the way we do things for as long as I have been alive.

Meanwhile, Representative Tony Bacala has informed us that Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals spends $100 million dollars a year in advertising.  Advertising!!?? Higher education in Louisiana is seeing significant reduced enrollment across the board.  Fewer students logically mean less costs, but you don’t see higher ed reducing any budgets.  Reduced enrollment also leads to a huge reduction in spending by the state in the TOPS program.  In the last school year, TOPS spending was reportedly down by $43 million and is expected to drop again this year.  Yet we have a fiscal cliff?  Again, state government has a long way to go to gain any credibility at all.

Here is a radical idea for our state government:  Let’s flip that process around.  Give us the tax cut now, cut your spending, and maybe down the road, We (the people of Louisiana) will give You (state government) a little bit more.  Probably not, but fair is fair.  After all, you never gave us the cuts you promised.