Equal taxation for all

As we learn more and more about the financial confusion created by the last minute rush of the passage of bills to plug Louisiana’s budget gap, it becomes more and more clear why we have a budget problem.

Apparently our state lawmakers have contributed heavily to Mr. Tom Benson’s bank account.  Not only does he have a lucrative agreement requiring  the state  to lease office space at Benson Towers, adjacent to the Mercedes Benz Superdome,  at approximately 20% higher than the going rate, but he also had a pass on sales tax being collected at the Dome and Smoothie King Center.  I have always wondered why there was no sales tax collected at either arena.   However, the recent grab for monies to plug the budget deficit removes the veil of secrecy surrounding this entire situation.

Due to a legislative blunder by our esteemed representatives all of us are now enlightened to the fact that in the negotiated 2009 agreement with the Saints and Pelicans, a clause was included that if state sales tax were ever imposed at the Dome or Smoothie King Center on Saints’ or Pelicans’ sporting events, Benson would receive full reimbursement of those collected taxes from the state. 

Additionally, if such reimbursement to Benson did not occur, the 2009 agreement to keep both teams in New Orleans would be voided.

To help deal with the present budget gap the legislators passed a bill to impose sales tax on all events held at both arenas.  However, the reimbursement clause for Mr. Benson regarding the Saints and Pelicans games was omitted due to confusion among our legislators.  Consequently, the 2009 agreement is voided and the teams are now free to leave the city.   Our legislators have agreed to immediately address the problem and put a tax exemption back in just for Mr. Benson’s teams.

My question is, “Why fix it?”  Again why not treat everyone equally.  Why should non-sporting event attendees such as concert goers have to bail out the state’s fiscal mismanagement, while Saints and Pelicans games attendees don’t?

While Saints sports fans might applaud the sales tax exemption clause because ticket prices are already sky high, the real issue is the legislators’ continuing bias in implementing the new sales tax regulations.  Additionally, why the a sales tax reimburse clause was even included in the original 2009 Saints/ Pelicans deal  remains a mystery and shows the frivolity of the state representatives in spending the publics’ money.

Regrettably, the recent legislation doesn’t fix anything in terms of equality in taxation.   We still have some paying sales tax, and others not, which just further indicates the fallacies of using a sales tax to serve as a major funding source for a state budget.  It is obvious that the entities with the most financial control over our legislators are still getting a free ride.   I guess now we can add Mr. Benson to that list which already includes the LABI members, chemical, gas and petroleum industries.    Sadly this list seems to grow bigger daily along with the deficit.

When is enough, enough?

One has to wonder if our state representatives are in touch with reality.  Tuesday’s headline in The Star was entitled, “Senators relieved, but reticent about impact of cuts.”  The article can best be summarized by quoting Sen. Ronnie Johns, R, from St. Charles Parish when he states, “We honestly thought that these cuts were going to be a heck of a lot more devastating to the average citizen out there.”

One day later we learn that the state budget is so out of whack that we are to the point of prioritizing health care for our citizens.  The Department of Health and Hospitals released information Wednesday that the funding of the hospitals that service the poor will now be prioritized.   The hospitals serving New Orleans and Shreveport are ranked one and two respectively, with Lafayette General being ranked third and Baton Rouge’s Our Lady of the Lake fourth.   The reason given by DHH is that “If there’s an across the board cut for all of them, then there’s not enough money for any of them to stay open.”  Consequently, only the number one and two prioritized hospitals will be funded.  Since the contractors that run the privatized hospitals have a clause in their contracts that they can simply stop running the hospitals at any time they desire with a 30 day notice, it’s most certain that operations would cease at Lafayette and Baton Rouge and other hospitals throughout the state. 

What could be, "a heck of a lot more devastating to the average citizen out there,” than making decisions about which group of people will have access to health care in this state?

Sadly this tragedy continues to play out while the corporations, businesses, churches, and even Mardi Gras krewes sit silently in the background knowing that their state tax breaks are secure because of the perks they afford to our legislators.  How much more devastation is needed to get our representatives to admit enough is enough and switch their allegiance to the people who elected them?

Louisiana businesses aren’t as abused as LABI claims

One of my favorite T-shirts in my vast collection reads “When all else fails, manipulate the data”  Once again Stephen Waguespack, president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, LABI, is lamenting  the fact that businesses pay a greater percent of the taxes in Louisiana as compared to the nation as a whole.   Consequently he feels that calling for a reduction in state tax breaks for the business community is tantamount to demanding the first born of every businessman in the state.

While Louisiana does have a higher than the national average corporation tax rate, the LABI president fails to report how many businesses in the state use revenue tricks to avoid paying the high tax rates.  This problem is clearly apparent in a report released by the Louisiana Department of Revenue.  It examined 87 of the largest companies that filed corporate tax returns in 2012 and found only one-quarter (22) paid corporate income taxes in Louisiana, even though 96 percent of those that made financial reports public claimed they were profitable.  Additionally, only half of the 87 paid corporate franchise taxes in Louisiana. The report found that,  “Many companies received refunds from refundable tax credits that exceeded their income and franchise liability.” 

Another fact omitted by the LABI president is the number of ‘state tax gifts’ given to large corporations in this state.   According to the Good Jobs First and Corporate Research Project, in Washington, D.C., Louisiana has given over $13 billion of subsidies to businesses, mostly during Jindal’s reign.   Louisiana ranked the fourth highest in amounts given by a state. The report shows hundreds of millions of subsidies given to large energy companies.

Additionally, corporate taxpayers, like individuals, are permitted to deduct their federal taxes on their state tax returns under present Louisiana laws.

 Are corporate tax rates high as LABI claims? Yes indeed.  However, large businesses and corporations are well compensated for these rates and some don’t pay anywhere near the present rates.

Instead of Mr. Waguespack spending his energy defending deficit-enhancing business tax breaks and rebates presently operating in this state, his time would be better spent advocating for an over-all tax structure revision.  Such a restructuring should include reducing corporate tax rates – which currently range from 4 to 8 percent, in conjunction with making businesses pay taxes for activities that go untaxed today or generate rebates.   However, it is quite apparent that Mr Waguespack desires only the former, and not the later; which provides no financial benefit to the state.

Legislators respresent lobbyists

Last week it was revealed that Mr. Stephen Waguespack the president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) had pressured our House representatives into considering raising the state sales tax an additional one cent higher than the already approved one cent increase to avoid businesses and corporations operating in this state from having to relinquishing some of their tax exemptions.This piqued my interest regarding the degree of influence lobbyist groups such as the LABI have in our state government.

According to the Louisiana Board of Ethics there are over 800 registered lobbyists operating within the executive and legislative branches.  The entities they represent are listed in a document totaling 221 pages in length.  They include everything from oil companies to food cart vendors.

Fortunately, most exist in name only and don’t really impact legislative decisions to the degree that the LABI, petroleum, chemical, and gas lobbyists do with their generous perks and contributions to our legislators’ election campaign funds.

However, as I delved deeper into the lobbyist system presently operating within our state, it occurred to me that our state could find additional sources of revenues to plug the disastrous budget hole by simply eliminating the middle men, namely our legislators.  The root cause of this devastating budget mess was past governors’ and most of the legislators’ catering to the wishes of these strong lobby groups.  Since our present legislators have apparently decided to continue following this practice, as evidenced by their inaction in reducing some tax breaks for businesses to help balance the budget,  let’s just have the paid lobbyists directly propose legislation to solve the fiscal problems.  It would seem we no longer need our legislators in a full time capacity.  They could just voluntarily show up for an hour and frame the proposals into bills for the governor’s signature.  What a cost savings!

All joking aside, perhaps it’s time for our legislators to review the definition of democracy.  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as, “a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.”  I don’t see the word ‘lobbyist’ mentioned anywhere.

It’s time for our state representatives to forget about the campaign contributions, free trips, lunches, dinners, tickets for sports events, etc. and vote for revenue measures that will involve all economic entities operating in this state equally.  They need to curtail proposing legislation that attempts to force the electorate to bail out the most recent eight years of fiscal allegiance to, and coddling of the lobbyists in this state which created the present fiscal disaster. 

Is the best we have?

After watching the latest Republican debate and the previous Democratic debate, I was depressed by one glaring fact.   Is this the best this great country has to offer?  We have Hillary Clinton the former Secretary of State, who lied about the circumstances surrounding the loss of lives in the Benghazi attack, and is presently under federal investigation for possibly jeopardizing national security.  Then there’s Bernie Sanders, a confessed socialist, which in any other times throughout our history would mean sudden death for any presidential aspirations.

On the Republican side we have Marco Rubio who didn’t even serve the people who elected him.  Of the lawmakers currently serving in the U.S. Senate, Marco Rubio is the least likely to show up for work.  He’s been in office for four years, and of 1,198 opportunities to vote, he has declined to do so 99 times. That’s an absentee rate of 8.2 percent—four times the Senate average of 2.01 percent.  That’s too much like Jindal for my liking and he has even been endorsed by our past governor.

Next is Ted Cruz the candidate that rebukes President Obama for issuing executive orders and circumventing Congress.   However, he promises to issue his own executive order undoing Obamacare.  Sadly, regarding Obamacare, he fails to tell us how he will handle the 1 million or more individuals with preexisting health conditions who will no longer be eligible for insurance coverage, or the recent college graduates who aren’t employed yet and can no longer remain on their parent’s health plan until age 26 once the plan is undone by Cruz’s executive order.  Why not let the voters decide Obamacare’s fate since Cruz professes to be a staunch constitutionalist? He also plans to issue executive orders requiring an investigation of Planned Parenthood and to end Common Core.

Then there’s Donald Trump the cyberbully who knows how to expertly use social media by tweeting and Facebooking.   His uses glib phrases and catchy buzz words to effectively tap into the hate and fears of the public at large.  His supporters love him because he says the things some are afraid to say; tells it like it is.  However, he hasn’t a substantive clue when it comes to foreign policy, trade relations, or domestic problem solving.  

Last there’s the Ohio governor John Kasich.  He probably would be just an okay president, but nothing really indicating dynamic leadership which our nation so desperately needs now.  However, he’s not conservative enough for the Republicans and too conservative for the Democrats.  And why would we want someone who advocates bringing us together as a nation when we are having so much fun tearing our nation apart by putting each other down?

And so we have it, the confederacy of dunces.  I recommend all political persuasions go to Factcheck.org, a nonpartisan website, after every debate and discover just how much incorrect information and distortion of facts are being slung in this political mud fest.

Is this the best this nation has to offer?   If so, how sad it is for such a great world power.