re: What kind of fear mongering will we see from JBE this morning?

As expected. Clamor for more taxes and our weak arse legislature folds abc leaves us residents to pony up with zilch to show.

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Will we see more threats to cancel the LSU football season?

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If he pulls that shite less than a week before signing day, he needs to be recalled immediately.

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Uh, is this some back door cancellation of football season-threat? I thought Football didn't receive money from the State, and was independent. Is this something like no school, no football?

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Yes. When he floated this last time, it was under the theory that the state can't afford to fund the school, so the school would have to shut down, which would mean it couldn't field a football team no matter how self-sufficient the football team would be.

While higher education proclaims that cuts to state funding mean higher fees and tuition.

Can the greedy bastards even comprehend the idea of spending less money??

If I were dictator, I would try and replicate Texas' tax structure here in La.

It might not be perfect, but look how well it works compared to ours.

I'm talking about industry, not small-business. It's ridiculous to think industry would change spots. The state literally paid out more credits to industry than taxes they took in from them over the last 2 years. shite, if I can get even half the credits they get, sign me up. I'll trade in a heartbeat.

Business steers clear of Louisiana for reasons other than taxes.

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Can the greedy bastards even comprehend the idea of spending less money??

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Okay bubba, I'm all for it . Why don't you start and tell us what you would cut? You want fire, police or schools first? Wanna sock it to LSU and not pay the professors or for the upkeep?

The dirty secret is that unless there is a new state constitutional convention, there is not much you can cut.

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Last year the state paid more in credits than it took in from industrial activity. They get tax breaks across the board and it's all in this misguided belief that they would go somewhere else if we didn't. Just a little rundown on two massive breaks they get:

Property tax exemption: every new plant in the state doesn't pay property taxes for 5 years and can extend it by 10 just by filing a simple form.

Sales tax exemption: probably the worst of them all. If you read the Supreme Court NISCO case it sheds some light on how bad this issue is. Basically, industry doesn't pay sales tax on really anything because they can claim it is for "further processing" of their chemicals.

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HOLD IT the assumption you are making here is wrong. Neither of the two exemption you mentioned there are losses to the state.

I don't agree with those exemption and I don't agree with homestead exemption either BUT those exemptions are basically on new property and is on taxes that are in fact generated by the business that gets them and are not taken from tax payers like the film tax credits or the digital media credit or the live music credits.

The ten year tax exemption should be eliminated along with the homestead exemption and tax collections held constant for one year so the millages will go down. It will add billions in property to the tax rolls and most everybody currently paying property tax would pay less even after losing their homestead exemption and industrial tax exemption.

We should collect sales tax on everything INCLUDING all food, all agricultural equipment and all services like legal fees. Again we should add all these things to the tax rolls one year but lower rates to reflect the new property being taxed.

We should also collect income tax from everybody INCLUDING government retirees of all ages. We should have a $35000 income exemption for ALL people over the age of 65 and that be it. Government employees should not get the special treatment they are getting now. Last year over $95 million of state pensions alone went untaxed.

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we threaten education,

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We shouldn't just threaten it--we should cut it and start in the state department of education.

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cut healthcare,

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We should do this tomorrow---cut reimbursements by medicaid by 10%--make the providers that pay their lobbyist and contribute to JBE and other politicians war chest take the hit. Not a soul would have to come off of medicaid. These doctors with 6 and 7 figure salaries and these hospitals with $5000 emergency room visits should just get less money for their services.