Lawmakers throw oil spill tax break in ‘bone pile’

A special tax exemption for individuals impacted by last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been placed on hold by members of the Louisiana House Ways and Means Committee. Chairman Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge, refers to this holding place as the “bone pile” because it’s among other bills on which action is deferred due to the state’s approaching $1.3 billion budget shortfall. If the fiscal picture brightens, Greene says, bills from the pile might be advanced prior to the session’s final day on June 23. House Bill 620 would allow payments for lost wages and income—possibly from a lawsuit against BP or in the form of an award from the Gulf Coast Claims Facility—to be exempt from state income taxation. “Most of these people have been kicked around by four hurricanes, and now they’re suffering because of the oil spill,” says the bill’s author, Rep. Damon Baldone, D-Houma. “We don’t need to kick them again by forcing them to pay taxes on this money.” Greg Albrecht, the Legislature’s chief economist, says the explosion of the Macondo deepwater rig and then the resulting pollution and federal drilling moratorium were “extraordinary enough” for the Legislative Fiscal Office to avoid ascribing a price tag to the bill. He says $14.7 million in compensatory payments, which would be exempt from income taxation under Baldone’s bill, have been paid out by BP or the GCCF during 2011 year-to-date. Greene says that figure was enough for him to move to temporarily shelve the bill without an official vote. For the rest of 10/12 Corridor Weekly, click here. — Jeremy Alford