The tax swap plan that Gov. Bobby Jindal is proposing is $500 million to $650 million short of replacing lost revenue from repealing income taxes, according to a PAR report released Thursday. The report faults the administration for lowballing the cost of repealing income taxes by using revenue figures from 2010-11, during the national recession, but then using the latest forecast to project future sales tax collections. “The use of the lower figures of the past to count the costs of the proposal and the higher figures of the future to count the benefits will lead to problems in reconciling the numbers,” reads the report. Tim Barfield, the head of the Department of Revenue and the point man on the tax plan, rejected the report’s conclusions. He released a statement, saying: “PAR’s assumptions are erroneous. I have met with the members of PAR and shared with them the core data of this plan. PAR’s analysis does not take into account all the data used by the Louisiana Department of Revenue. We have always maintained that we used 2011 Fiscal Year data as a starting point for our analysis, but we have not stopped there. A standard approach to estimate the future is to begin with the best data as of today. This we have done, but only as the starting point.”
—U.S. Rep. John Fleming is moving closer to running against Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, based on the results of a poll he commissioned. The Public Opinion Strategies poll shows Landrieu at 47%, ahead of three Republicans: Fleming, 15%; U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, 14%; and BESE Chairman Chas Roemer, 6%. That Landrieu is running under 50% against three lesser-known opponents indicates her vulnerability, says Fleming’s consultant, John Brabender. He notes that Fleming separates more from Cassidy after poll respondents are told that Fleming has more support from conservative groups than Cassidy. Jason Hebert, Cassidy’s consultant, says of Fleming’s poll: “It basically confirmed that Mary Landrieu is vulnerable. That’s about where it stops.”
They said it: “I see Eric Holder is with us.” —Gov. Bobby Jindal, recycling a Gridiron joke during last week’s CPAC gathering, which the U.S. attorney general obviously did not attend.
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
