Jindal proposes a huge tax increase on the Middle class
Posted: March 14, 2013 Filed under: Bobby Jindal | Tags: ALEC inspired tax abuse 17 Comments
This is almost unbelievable. Jindal’s released his tax plan in a push to eliminate all corporate and income taxes in the state. This plan is likely to kill many small businesses and will push up taxes for the majority of folks in Louisiana. It is also a killer tax for tourist-related industries. This is an ALEC-inspired scheme so it’s possible the plan will pop up in other states with Republican governors. I can’t say enough about Louisiana being the Petri dish for the virus that is ALEC. It is hyper-regressive. It’s a total slam to the purchasing power and incomes of most families and is unlikely to inspire any movement to the state. Most corporations rank life style and availability of good education, cultural events and sports teams above corporate tax schemes when listing relocation criteria.
The proposal — which would tax $1.4 billion in services not currently taxed by the state — will be debated in the legislative session that starts next month.
Legislation detailing the proposal has yet to be filed. However, the Jindal administration gave an overview of the plan, which would take effect in January. The details include:
- Raising state sales tax by 47 percent. The state sales tax would increase from 4 percent to 5.88 percent.
- More than tripling the state cigarette excise tax by raising it from 36 cents a pack to $1.41 a pack. The increase would put Louisiana in line with what Texas charges.
- Eliminating half of the tax exemptions used by the oil and gas industry.
- Creating rebates for poor families and some retirees.
- Erasing scores of tax exemptions, many of which would disappear with the elimination of the state’s personal income and corporate taxes.
The governor’s changes would punt Louisiana to the top of the list of states with the highest combined state and local sales taxes. The average combined rate now would top 10 percent.
Just to give you an idea of what that means to those of us that live and shop in New Orleans:
The planned increase in the sales tax would raise the current rate by about 47 percent and would come on top of local sales taxes. Residents in New Orleans, for example, would pay a combined rate of about 11 percent under the plan.
The proposal also calls for increasing the state’s cigarette tax from 36 cents to $1.41 per pack.
Louisiana already has one of the highest combined average state and local sales tax rate in the country and the increase would put the state at the top of that list, according to information from The Tax Foundation.
Sales taxes would be expanded to some services under the plan, said Tim Barfield, Jindal’s point man on the tax proposal. A number of professional services, such as healthcare, legal services and construction, would be exempt from sales taxes but the administration has not yet produced a definitive list of which services would be taxed.
I think this would just about sew up my already firm habit of buying just about everything but food on the internet.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
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Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
What a weirdo. He shouldn’t even be allowed out of his house, and he runs a state. What kind of lunatic would dream up such a thing.
Hey, how are you doing? It’s good to see you!
One that wants to get a lot of big republican donors and get through a republican presidential primary.
Jindal is both heartless and insane.
and cruel and ambitious … I’m going for psychopath
The man makes me feel relieved that Gov Deal is my Gov….sick innit?
You actually made me laugh. Heartless and insane. Forget “growth and opportunity.” This is the perfect product identifier for the new Republican Party. Heartless AND insane, all in one package.
Kat, it’s not that far to Pearl River if you need to do some shopping for items you don’t want to buy in the state and if you want to look for clothing items and more, go to the outlet mall in Gulfport.
http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=83
Yes. I’ve gone there before. Thx for the suggestion !!! I’m headed to Seattle next month so I will probably save my money for the Nordstrom Rack this time out. Last year I hit the rack in Denver.
LOL! Can’t blame you on the Nordstrom thing.
I have to wonder how much of a shot this has. I’m willing to bet the various parish governments will not want it because of the sales tax being one of their means of generating income. If this passes, parishes will probably never pass a local tax increase again.
Nordstrom Rack is the best place ever to shop. Cheap and everything is top shelf Nordstrom. I can’t imagine any parish that relies on tourists or is any where near a state border will like this either. They’ll all go across state lines to shop. The surrounding states must be ecstatic about this!
(just catching up and reading this)
Hey kat, let me know when you’re in town and we can hit the Rack together! Although Seattle sales tax is 9.8% last time I checked.
First week of may
Don’t they exempt clothing there?
Nope, only food is exempt from the State sales tax. Then there’s City sales tax, so that can vary a bit depending on the city or town. Only food — including soda pop, candy, and junk food is sale-tax exempt.
Clothes, toothpaste, aspirin, toilet paper, anything that is not “food” gets sales tax. You mean clothes are not taxed in NO? That seems odd to me, but then I’ve grown up used to taxes on clothing.
Sales tax is incredibly regressive. Oregon, the state to the south, has no sales tax but does have an income tax. Washingtonians near the border do a lot of shopping in Oregon!
Clothes are taxed here but they weren’t in Minnesota.
OT – but Rachel was beyond incensed just now because of the Cruz lecture to Sen. Feinstein. She called it for what it was – outright misogyny. Man was she pissed! Loved it.