Sales tax plan revealed...sorta

Thursday, Bobby Jindal made a rare appearance at the State Capitol . He materialized before the House Ways and Means and Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committees (the tax committees) in support of Rep. Joel Robideaux’s plan for increasing the state sales taxes and repealing the personal income tax and some other taxes — maybe.

As predicted, rather than seeing the legislation that Robideaux will attempt to pass only a summary of the tax plan was given out. For those not familiar with the lege process, the leges can only pass bills or resolutions, not prose explaining a plan.

Executive Counsel for the LA Department of Revenue Tim Barfield (the department has no secretary) appeared and read a speech that someone wrote for him.

In the course of the meeting there were contradictory statements about the Robideaux Plan and conflicting numbers were provided. Robideaux made no attempt to clarify.

Of note was the fact that Robideaux plans to repeal $2.7 billion is existing taxes; which is the amount for the State Personal Income Tax only.

Kyle Plotkin said that Robideaux was also going to repeal the Corporate Income and Franchise Taxes. However, he offered no explanation for the $400 million plus discrepancy.

Bottom-line is that we know no more about the plan today than we did yesterday.

Sources say that no further details of the plan will be revealed to the public until the lege session begins on April 8. The complete plan will not be revealed until Robideaux schedules a hearing on his plan in his committee.

Anyone interested in more details can contact Robideaux. He can be reached via email at larep045@legis.la.gov or by telephone at (337)984-1091. You can visit him at 102 Woodvale Avenue, Suite B, Lafayette, LA.