When Louisiana’s legislators start filing bills for
the 2019 regular session, those interested in fiscal reform would do well to
follow a three-part roadmap laid out by the Pelican Institute.
Its latest
study reviews the state’s means of generating revenue. This follows papers
dealing with intergovernmental relations and budgeting. Although a complete
overhaul along the lines of these efforts would require amending the Constitution,
and frankly in ways unlikely to gather the necessary legislative support to present
these to voters (which is why the group favors a constitutional convention to
carry it all out), statutory changes it suggests would make for improvement.
The tax reform it argues for would produce a
flattened, broadened, and largely revenue-neutral code when compared to two
different baselines. For individuals, establishing a flat income tax rate of
four percent while raising the standard deduction and wiping out some
big-ticket exemptions, such as for federal taxes paid and excess itemized
deductions, as well as other smaller ones would keep revenues stable while
actually shifting more burden onto a small number of higher-income filers. This
scenario it offers as a fallback to adjusting deductions further to roll back
tax increases made last year.
