Jeff Landry steps up effort to sell overhaul of tax system to state legislators

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Gov. Jeff Landry spent several hours Wednesday trying to get Republican legislators on board with his plan to dramatically rewrite Louisiana’s tax code during a special session he wants to call in November.

Landry won generally favorable reviews when he pitched his proposals in separate private meetings with House and Senate Republicans, a day after unveiling his plan to get them to lower individual and corporate income taxes in exchange for renewing an expiring sales tax and for imposing sales taxes on many purchases and activities that go untaxed today.

The administration sent a package of 10 different tax bills to legislators that spell out the proposed changes to the tax system.

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As previously reported, Landry wants legislators to approve a single flat tax of 3% to replace the current individual income system that has three rates. The governor also wants to raise the standard deduction from $4,500 per taxpayer to $12,500 to offset the higher taxes that low-income taxpayers would face by going to the flat tax. Seniors would receive a $25,000 standard deduction.

Landry also wants to collapse the two corporate income tax rates into a single rate of 5% and eliminate the corporate franchise tax, which is generally a tax on capital.

Landry would offset the revenue losses in part by having legislators renew the temporary .45-cent sales tax that is scheduled to expire on June 30.

Landry also wants to raise money by making a host of activities subject to state sales taxes. Those items, two of the bills show, include digital streaming services such as Amazon Prime, printing and copying services, laundry cleaning, newsletters, subscriptions to genealogical databases, interior decorating, personal fitness training services, pet grooming, spa services and tattoos.

Landry also wants to eliminate on Jan. 1 the granting of new tax breaks that aim to generate investment in Louisiana but that produce a low rate of return on taxes. These include such programs as the Motion Picture Investor Tax Credit, Enterprise Zones, Quality Jobs, Angel Investor, Rehabilitation of Historic Structures and a break for horizontal well drilling.

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