How Jindal is proposing to fix the Louisiana budget: cigarette taxes, student fees, tax credits

[Renaissance Man]

Increased fees for students, healthcare cuts, rollback on tax credits (none of which affect chemical and oil refineries in the state) are Jindal's plan to balance the budget.

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Gov. Bobby Jindal will propose Friday to scale back spending on tax credits and offer lawmakers a package of fee hikes and money-generating ideas that could keep Louisiana's colleges from facing deep, damaging cuts that had been forecast next year.

The governor's recommendations for closing a $1.6 billion gap in the fiscal year that begins July 1 will be presented to the Legislature's joint budget committee Friday. The Associated Press received a preview Thursday.

The hefty size of the shortfall leaves higher education and health care services, which are the least protected areas of the state's budget, most at risk to the chopping block. College leaders have worried that their campuses could be devastated with widespread layoffs and program closures.

To help close the shortfall, Jindal proposes to spend $526 million less on refundable tax credits, in which the state often pays out more than the taxes a person or business owes. The governor wants to rework 12 tax credits so the state doesn't pay more than the tax liability.

/SNIP

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More at the link:


http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/02/bobby_jindal_seeks_to_avoid_de.html

[SummerSnow]

1. The state of Louisiana needs to get rid of him now

[KamaAina]

2. Here's a thought: Raise the severance tax

on all that oil and gas.

[gratuitous]

3. PBJ thinks these gimmicks will total $1.6 billion?

Good luck, Governor. But as long as he is determined to service the only folks who matter in Louisiana, he and the Republicans are safe, safe, safe in trashing the rest of the state.

[KamaAina]

4. Cigarette taxes? What about the booze tax?

Mardi Gras alone could pay for the whole damn budget!