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1 Scott Drenkard, A Strong Fiscal Plan for Louisiana 1 (2016)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/stfiscpla0001 and id is 1 raw text is: A Strong Fiscal Plan for Louisiana Scott Drenkard Economist & Director of State Projects, Tax Foundation Louisiana House Committee on Ways & Means February 23,2016 Chairman Abramson, Vice Chairman Morris, Members of the Committee, Thank you for the opportunity to address you today. My name is Scott Drenkard, and I'm an economist and the director of state projects at the Tax Foundation. For those unfamiliar with the Tax Foundation, we are a non-partisan, non-profit organization that has monitored fiscal policy at all levels of government since 1937. We have produced the Facts & Figures handbook since 1941, we calculate Tax Freedom Day each year, and have a wealth of data, rankings, and other information at our website, www.TaxFoundation.org. In November of 2015, my colleagues and I released a book in partnership with the Committee of 100 titled Louisiana Fiscal Reform:A Framework for the Future. Each of you should have been delivered a copy recently. In this book, we detail reform recommendations designed to help Louisiana overcome the problems of short term fixes and build a tax system that is simpler, more neutral, and provides stable revenues for government operation. As a component of writing this book, my colleagues and I met with over 250 Louisianans from all walks of life, including small business owners, local government officials, trade associations, industry representatives, state officials across the political spectrum, and ordinary taxpayers. While we take no position on specific legislation, we offer our recommendations with hopes of providing insight into the successes and troubles of other state's tax systems so that Louisiana can make educated decisions. Louisiana's Special Session Presents an Opportunity The proposals facing the House and Senate this special session address two main goals: 1) shore up revenue to address the state's structural deficit, and 2) address perceived inequities in the application of certain taxes. I think everyone here agrees these two goals are attainable, but I think more importantly, that this body has an opportunity in the process to attain a third, very important goal: make the state's tax system or simple, sensible, straightforward, and competitive for businesses and individuals. In other words, state tax reform is possible this special session, more so than at any time in the last decade. 1

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