Local business owners and executives welcome yet wary of tax reform

Pat Felder, owner of Felder’s Collision Parts and chairwoman of BRAC’s board of directors, says Louisiana needs major tax reform. “It’s always had the reputation of being very business-unfriendly,” she says. However, Felder is concerned about possibly losing incentives for small businesses, and fears higher sales taxes will harm businesses that sell big-ticket items. She’d be happy to see LED’s Enterprise Zone program go away, which she says has strayed from its purpose of helping blighted areas. “You’ve got big national drug companies sitting on prime real estate, taking advantage of the Enterprise Zone,” she says. (LED Secretary Stephen Moret says the program could be tweaked to ensure it is spurring net job growth.) Patrick Mulhearn, director of studio operations for Raleigh Studios Baton Rouge, says if the income tax goes away, maintaining film and digital media incentives as state tax credits is preferable to a pure rebate program. He suggests letting oil and gas companies reduce their severance tax liabilities by purchasing the credits, thereby creating a partnership between a traditional Louisiana industry and an emerging one. Entrepreneur Sean Simone says eliminating the personal income tax could help him attract and retain employees, and help Louisiana attract angel investors. “I’m not against tax credits,” he says, “but we can’t rely on them. That’s not what’s going to build the state.” Felder, Mulhearn and Simone were among more than 400 attendees at a breakfast hosted by Business Report, where the Department of Revenue’s Tim Barfield addressed tax reform. —David Jacobs