A day after lawmakers passed a $24 billion budget in a frenzied end to the legislative session, financial analysts were sifting through the tax bills expected to finance it to make sure the numbers add up.
As The Associated Press reports, higher education leaders were mostly celebrating an escape from deep cuts. In a prepared statement issued today, LSU President F. King Alexander says “we are in the early stages of analyzing the bills passed and their effect on Louisiana higher education,” adding “early indications are positive, though, pointing to higher education being funded at the same level as the previous fiscal year.”
Businesses and smokers, meanwhile, were grumbling over increased taxes they’ll pay as part of the budget-balancing plans. Lawmakers approved a 50-cent-per-pack cigarette increase, giving Louisiana an 86-cent overall tax, the country’s 35th highest rate. Among other bills that will increase taxes for businesses, lawmakers cut 25% in the refundable portion of the inventory tax credit with the remainder eligible to be carried forward for future years. A cap was placed on the solar tax credit, and the film industry also saw its tax credit capped at $180 million, which is $70 million less than what’s being paid out this year.
Lawmakers acknowledged they passed largely short-term fixes. Many of the tax bills expire in three years, and the budget contains $500 million in patchwork money that will have to be replaced within a year.
“It’s hard to paint a pretty picture about many aspects of this session, but it’s also hard to say it turned out much different than could be expected,” concludes the Council for A Better Louisiana in a recap of the session it released today. “The budget issues dominated the session, as they should have, but as noted earlier they were further complicated by other factors that made an ultimate resolution even more difficult to attain. But at the end of the day lawmakers raised some $720 million needed to help plug a budget hole that was more than twice that large and they ended up with a budget that, at least ostensibly, seems balanced.”
