BATON ROUGE, Lousiana (AP) — Louisiana lawmakers advanced bills to flatten the state’s income tax rate and repeal the corporate franchise tax in a special legislative session focused on a sweeping tax reform package championed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry.
The session started earlier this week and the bills quickly cleared committees despite pushback from Democratic lawmakers and groups such as those representing the film industry , which are set to lose tax breaks. The state House of Representatives could vote on the bills early next week.
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One of the bills would introduce a flat individual income tax rate of 3% while increasing deductions for the lower income brackets. The legislative fiscal office’s former chief economist Greg Albrecht described the proposed income tax plan as “modestly progressive” compared to the existing tax code in a study commissioned by a coalition of nonpartisan policy think tanks.
Democratic Rep. Matthew Willard, the state House Minority Leader, said on Thursday that the income tax cuts would do little to help lower-income households. Citing Albrecht’s study, he noted that people earning between $25,000 to $30,000 annually would only get back $224 as a result of the proposed reforms.