After months of study by a blue-ribbon panel commissioned to recommend tax overhaul ideas, Louisiana’s lawmakers are on track to reject most of the big-ticket concepts, sending the suggestions to the same dustbin as past studies.
The Associated Press reports few task force tax suggestions have advanced beyond their initial hearings. Several of the main proposals have been killed outright, while others haven’t even gotten a hearing as bill sponsors realized they’re unlikely to gain traction.
The stopping point for many proposals has been the conservative, majority-Republican House Ways and Means Committee, where most tax bills must start.
“Why do we have studies and put them on the shelf to collect dust?” asks Rep. Rob Shadoin, a Ruston Republican who sponsored four income-tax bills based on task force suggestions that were jettisoned by the committee.
The Task Force on Structural Changes in Budget and Tax Policy was created by lawmakers last year. The 13-member panel of economists, tax experts and policy leaders was pushed by Republicans, to study “budget and tax reform” and make suggestions that would put Louisiana more in line with other states and end its boom-and-bust budget cycles.
Baton Rouge Rep. Ted James, a Democrat on the committee, expects the Legislature will ignore the study’s recommendations, despite the looming loss of $1.3 billion in expiring taxes in mid-2018.
“I take no pride in saying this, but I predicted last year that the task force would be a waste of time,” James says. “I don’t see anything substantial getting out of here that could be called reform.”
