Lawmakers debating plans to shore up Louisiana’s looming budget hole in yet another special session were interrupted Thursday by a landmark Supreme Court decision that could be a financial boon for the state.
The ruling overturned the Supreme Court’s 1992 decision in Quill v. North Dakota, which restricted states from collecting sales tax from retailers if they didn’t have a physical presence in the state.
Though it initially had some lawmakers hoping it might help them address the roughly $500 million in unfunded budget priorities for the fiscal year that begins July 1, hopes of any quick fix were dashed as it became clear the impact won’t be immediate.
While everyone agrees the ruling is significant, no one knows for sure what the impact will be.
ShoppersChoice.com CEO Corey Tisdale told Daily Report on Thursday afternoon that he was only beginning to dig into the matter to figure out how it will impact his business.
And while many try to determine the impact of the ruling, a new Louisiana Law Blog post written by Kean Miller partners Jaye Calhoun and Jason Brown with special counsel Willie Kolarik concludes it’s not even clear that there will be any impact.
That’s because the Supreme Court did not specifically make a judgment on the constitutionality of the North Dakota law, the Kean Miller lawyers explain. Unless and until the Supreme Court rules that the South Dakota law is constitutional, one of its most impactful provisions will never be triggered, they add.
“Without that trigger, the definition of ‘dealer’ will not include online retailers … and the current taxing regime in Louisiana will remain,” they write.
Read the full blog post for more analysis of the ruling.
