Ups and downs: First-time claims for unemployment insurance in Louisiana for the week ending April 6 increased from the previous week’s total. State labor department figures released today show the initial claims increased to 2,444 from the previous week’s total of 1,663. Initial claims were below the comparable week a year earlier at 3,141. The four-week moving average, which is a less volatile measure of claims, decreased to 2,013 from the previous week’s total of 2,117.
Fair warning: The 2014 budget proposal released earlier this week by President Barack Obama and the spending plan’s cap on the tax exempt status of municipal bonds could prove detrimental to state and local governments, says state Treasurer John Kennedy. “If you curb the tax advantages of the municipal bond market, it would jeopardize the state’s and municipalities’ access to low-cost financing,” says Kennedy, who has posted his complete view of the proposal on his website here.
Art and taxes: In a column today, LABI President Dan Juneau says he’s learned a thing or two about attempts to make big reforms over the past 40 years. As it relates to tax reform, Juneau says: It shouldn’t be attempted during times of budget uncertainties; it requires hard verifiable data; stakeholders need to be involved and supportive of the plan; and the process shouldn’t be rushed, “There is an art to reform, particularly tax reform. That art has been absent thus far in the current process,” says Juneau, whose full column you can read here.
