One of the ironies of the Steve Scalise story is that he appeared before David Dukes white supremacist group to campaign against the Stelly Plan, the only common sense fiscal reform plan to ever emerge from the Legislature. Prior to Stelly, which was proposed by Lake Charles Republican Rep. Vic Stelly, the state was plagued with a chronic budget deficit. The Legislature would balance the budget by lifting an exemption for food and utilities from the state sales tax. The Stelly Plan permanently ended the state sales tax on food and utilities in favor of higher state income tax rates. The plan was approved by voters in a constitutional amendment. Scalise and other Republicans opposed Stelly from the start. Eventually, Vic Stelly would change his party affiliation to Independent. For the duration of the Stelly Plan the budget crisis was replaced by a budget surplus. Jindal, Scalise and the GOP couldnt leave well enough alone and repealed the Stelly Plan in 2008. The budget crisis promptly returned but this time there was no sales tax on food and utilities to fall back on. Jindal and the Legislature balanced the budget by slashing spending for education and health care; using one-time revenues to pay recurring expenses and raiding various trust funds of even their principal (you are only supposed to spend the interest). Jindal went so far as to propose eliminating the state income tax altogether and replacing it with higher sales taxes(talk about going backwards). The plan went nowhere but it was supported by the Koch group, Americans For Prosperity. The Legislature was forced to renew a 4 cent cigarette tax by a constitutional amendment to avoid a Jindal veto. A proposal to raise the cigarette tax to offset spending cuts to health care died because of Jindals opposition. The only solution to this problem would be to bring back the Stelly Plan to some degree but you wont hear any candidate for governor suggest it. Instead you will hear talk of eliminating tax credits and using tolls to build needed highways. That simply wont work. Eliminating tax credits is easier said than done. The affected industries can claim it will cost jobs and to some extent it would be true. Using tolls would mean some areas would have to pay to drive while others wouldnt. What Louisiana lacks most of all are commonsense leaders.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 16:31:09 +0000
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