Barfield: Tax reform will have ‘very few losers’

Louisiana Department of Revenue Secretary Tim Barfield is pushing back against what he says are common misperceptions about the Jindal administration’s still-evolving tax reform package. Broadly speaking, Gov. Bobby Jindal wants to eliminate personal and corporate income taxes, but still raise the same amount of revenue with higher sales taxes and fewer exemptions. Among the points Barfield stressed to the audience at a breakfast hosted by Business Report today:
—Impacts on poor and middle-class people: The administration wants to protect tax breaks for food, medicine and home utilities, and wants to preserve the state’s earned income tax credit in some form.
—Oil and gas taxes: Referring to a media report that suggested eliminating oil and gas extraction taxes was on the table, Barfield says the idea has not been seriously considered, although he does not dismiss it entirely.
—Sales tax collection: He says the state isn’t looking to take over local sales tax collection, but rather wants to partner with the locals on a unified system that would be simpler for business owners and help the state comply with possible federal legislation governing Internet sales taxes.
—Stability: Barfield says sales taxes are “generally the most stable tax base out there.” Sales tax receipts tend to grow more slowly than other revenue sources but don’t fall as fast during a downturn, he says, suggesting that’s a trade-off worth making. —David Jacobs