Barfield disputes religious leaders’ claim that tax proposal data is wrong

Revenue Department head Tim Barfield issued a response this afternoon to an allegation from a group of religious leaders that Gov. Bobby Jindal’s claim that nearly all families will get a financial break under his tax swap proposal is not true. The United Faith Community of Louisiana, an approximately 250-member organization, says all of the sales tax increases included in Jindal’s proposal are not factored into claims made about the plan’s impact on Louisiana families, specifically the poor. That omission “dramatically skews” the data to show a lower sales tax burden for households than what they would actually face. “We agree with the members of the clergy that low-income residents should not be negatively impacted by our tax reform plan,” Barfield says in a prepared statement. He adds that the formula used in the analysis of the tax swap’s effect “ensures that the tax burden will be reduced for all income brackets even when considering increased taxes resulting from an expanded sales tax base.” Rev. Melvin Rushing, a Baptist pastor from Baton Rouge, was among two dozen religious leaders who gathered at the Capitol today to protest Jindal’s tax plan. He says half the sales tax hike is left out of calculations for how the swap would affect households. “We call on Gov. Jindal to withdraw and publicly disavow this analysis so that citizens and elected officials can begin to have a reasonable debate based on facts, not distortion and untruths,” Rushing says.