LA sales tax is highest in the nation

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Does not equal sales tax. What point are you trying to make?

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rocket31

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One of the most conservative states in the country taking the most from its residents

Oh the hilarity of how well they have fooled you all

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Louisiana, according to the Web site of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, is the third largest producer of crude and the second largest producer of natural gas, if you include the federally administered leases in the Gulf of Mexico, off Louisiana's shore. Add its oil production to its refining operations, and you'll find that Louisiana either refines and/or produces one-fifth of the nation's oil, according to Timothy J. Haney, a professor of sociology at Mount Royal University in Calgary.

Writing for Truthout of the environmental debt owed Louisiana by the rest of the nation, Haney, a former New Orleans resident, makes the point that if Louisiana were an independent nation, its oil riches would render it a very wealthy one indeed. Instead, Louisiana has more residents living under the poverty level than any other state except Mississippi, its neighbor on the Gulf. Yet in terms of its gross domestic product, Louisiana ranks ahead of Connecticut, which is the nation's third wealthiest state.

The poverty of Louisiana's people and the paucity of its coffers are due in part to the fact that Louisiana, unlike a number of other oil-excavating states, receives no revenues for most of the oil extracted just off its shores; those undersea wells are claimed by the federal government, which in turn claims the riches, the royalties, from the leases of the seabed to such oil giants as BP. More revenues would mean more money, say, for education, a critical element in creating a diverse economy. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, Connecticut ranks fourth in the nation in its per capita elementary and secondary education spending, while Louisiana ranks 38th.

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