The business community is anxious about the governor’s plan to fill the budget hole by cutting refundable tax credits.
As the Louisiana legislative session started on April 13, Gov. Bobby Jindal’s opening speech did nothing to reassure the business community about how the state’s $1.6 billion budget hole will be filled.
The chief concerns from state businesses deal with Gov. Jindal’s plan to eliminate a slate of refundable tax credits, and in particular, the inventory tax credit. Gov. Jindal did not directly address this proposal, but remarked that cuts to higher education in order to support “corporate welfare” would be wrong and unfair. He also referred to the $500 million in tax revenue that would be generated by eliminating these tax credits, which he has proposed to use to prop up higher education and healthcare budgets.
Dawn Starns, NFIB’s Louisiana state director, says that reversing these refundable tax credits will have a negative effect on businesses.
“All of a sudden the governor wants to balance the budget on the back of business, and he’s calling it corporate welfare,” Starns says. “That is a change in tone. Was it corporate welfare when he was investing in these mega-projects and investing money in companies to get them to move here?”
