NFIB/LA fought against Gov. Edwards’ extensive tax-raising agenda.
Second Special Session Ends Without Income Tax Hikes
The Louisiana Legislature’s second special session ended on June 23, and small business owners breathed a small sigh of relief that no income tax hikes were passed.
Since the first special session this year already raised roughly $1.2 billion, largely by hiking the state sales tax, this was a small victory for beleaguered taxpayers and business owners.
At the close of the session, the Legislature had raised an additional $263 million to go toward filling the state’s budget hole for the next year.
Here’s a look at what passed and what didn’t, per the Associated Press/Advocate:
Passed
- House Bill 24: Increases the tax credit for HMOs.
- House Bill 25: Permanently reduces the tax credit the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation Assessment, which is charged to homeowners and renters. The rebate is currently 72 percent of the assessment charged on property insurance bills and will drop to 25 percent, retroactively to Jan. 1, 2016.
- House Bill 29: Reduces the amount of interest individuals and businesses get back if they overpay their taxes. The calculation would be changed so that if the state returns the overpayment within 90 days, the individual or business wouldn’t be owed any extra money in interest.
- House Bill 35: Increases the annual tax on health maintenance organizations (HMOs) from 2.25 percent to 5.5 percent.
- Senate Bill 6: Adjusts the inventory tax credit so that a portion of the credit could be carried forward against tax liability rather than refunded.
- Senate Bill 10: Limits the inventory tax credit businesses can claim if they also get an exemption from paying local property taxes on their facilities. The businesses—this affects large manufacturers the most—would be able to apply the remaining inventory tax credit to their tax bill, but not get a refund check.
Failed
- House Bill 5: Would have pushed off a statewide vote on a proposal to revamp the state’s corporate tax laws until 2017.
- House Bills 7, 17, and 33: Would have eliminated the deduction of federal income taxes from state income taxes and instituted a lower, flat individual income tax rate.
- House Bills 11 and 38: Would have increased state individual income taxes for taxpayers who itemize deductions by limiting the amount of federal excess itemized deductions taxpayers could deduct.
- House Bills 31, 32, and 34: Would have made cuts to a variety of tax break programs.
- House Bill 40: Would have increased the state individual income tax on taxpayers earning $17,500 or more.
- Senate Bill 7: Would have increased the Earned Income Tax Credit.
