If the Louisiana Legislature wants to take the public’s temperature on the popularity of sales taxes, the elections held in 46 parishes this past weekend offer a quick and dirty read, says Jeremy Alford in his latest column.
Voters on Saturday defeated 80% of the ballot initiatives that promoted either renewals, rededications or increases, Alford notes, adding only voters in Natchitoches and Richland opted to pay more in local sales taxes.
“That a combined 2,600 voters participated in these two elections is a problem all by itself, but the turnout certainly doesn’t suggest any enthusiasm for this type of government money-grab,” he writes. “Meanwhile the electorates in Caddo, Calcasieu, Lafayette, Lafourche, LaSalle, Livingston and St. Tammany parishes all decided to shoot down similar sales tax initiatives. (Some by very small margins, like 19 votes in Lafourche and 119 votes in St. Tammany.)”
But Alford says you shouldn’t try to read too much into the election results.
“As an overview, they don’t represent a scientifically-sound snapshot of the public’s mood on the issue of sales taxes in general,” he writes. “Yet the results do clearly show how a sampling of nine diverse parishes, on Saturday, April 29, overwhelmingly yielded negative reactions to the question of tinkering with local sales taxes.”
And yet the elections are relevant and timely because the Legislature—once again—is trying to decide what the state sales tax structure should look like, Alford says.
“In fact, it may become the sticking point of this year’s regular session,” he writes. “Last year lawmakers added a temporary increase of one penny to the state’s four-penny sales tax. Why? Because the state was facing yet another budget shortfall and sales taxes are a way that government officials can get cash in a hurry.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards is urging lawmakers to find a replacement for the money that will disappear when the fifth penny is set to expire in 2018, Alford says. In response, members of the House and Senate are wading through the knee-deep politics of this ongoing session and hoping a solution surfaces soon.
“Thus far an answer to this ‘fiscal cliff’—a loss of $1.3 billion next year, due primarily to the change in the state sales tax—has been difficult to come by. This is not comforting news as the regular session quickly approaches its midway point. (Adjournment is scheduled for June 8.),” he writes. “Then again, if it weren’t for the proverbial last minute, lawmakers would never get anything done. So we wait.”
Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or on Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
