Gov. Jindal Should Salvage Income Tax Repeal

Focus Should Be On Phase-Out of Income Tax While Cutting Budget

by Woody Jenkins, Editor

BATON ROUGE — Things are looking rather bleak for Gov. Jindal’s tax plan, at least for his proposed increase in the state sales tax and his new 6.25 percent sales tax on professional, business, and personal services.  And rightfully so.  A new $1.5 billion tax on business is the last thing we should do to help our economy.

Nevertheless, the essence of Jindal’s plan — the repeal of the state personal income tax and the state corporate income tax remain a powerful tactic for giving our state’s economy a giant leap forword.

The governor and his supporters in the legislature — most of whom are conservative — should return to their conservative roots.  They should go with a real tax cut — that’s what tax “reform” really ought to be about.  It should be about reducing the burden of the average tax-paying citizen and the average business owner.

Government is far, far too big, and it ought to be cut.

So let’s do what makes sense — let’s phase-in the repeal of the personal and corporate income tax, while cutting unnecessary and wasteful government spending.

Less government, less spending, and lower taxes are the true approach to turn around our economy.

Remember this: Yes, we want to bring business to invest here.  Absolutely.  But we also want to make sure the businesses already here have a good economic climate to operate in.  So the last thing we should do is impose a new $1.5 billion tax on them!

In addition to repealing the state income tax, there is one other change that is vital to making us competitive with Texas and Florida.  I’m amazed that no one has proposed this and pushed it through the legislature.

Homestead Exemption. In Louisiana, we are all familiar with the homestead exemption.  It exempts the first $75,000 in value of a person’s house from all but municipal property.  It was born of the Depression when hundreds of thousands of Louisianians lost their homes when they couldn’t pay their property taxes.

But in Florida and Texas, there is a different kind of homestead exemption, and it is absolutely vital to the fact that those states have become retirement centers.

In Florida and Texas, your home can only be seized for one of two reasons — non-payment of property taxes and non-payment of your mortgage.  It cannot be seized because of a frivolous lawsuit against you.

Do you know why billions of dollars are invested in Florida homes?  One major reason is to provide the owner a safe haven in an asset that cannot be seized.

Imagine what that kind of homestead exemption could mean to Louisiana — just in the area of home construction.  Yes, repeal the state income tax and pass a Florida-style homestead exemption, and you will see real economic growth as Louisiana has never seen it before!