Deal brokered: Louisiana House advances sales tax bill; here are next steps

[TexasTowelie]

After years of special sessions and temporary budget patches, the Louisiana Legislature appears to be on track to shore up the state's finances through at least 2025, with the House passage Friday of a sales tax deal that has eluded the chamber in two prior special sessions this year.

House Bill 10, approved on a 74-24 vote, would set the state sales tax rate at 4.45 percent on July 1 by extending nine-twentieths, or .45, of a 1 percent tax hike that would otherwise expire.

"We're not over the goal line today but we are so much closer," Gov. John Bel Edwards said after the House vote.

The proposal must still be vetted by the Senate this weekend, but leaders say they expect the upper chamber to quickly agree to the House version of the bill.

Read more: http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_8424e9a0-7630-11e8-9da8-67b9c39c5df5.html

[Honeycombe8]

1. This was bad news. It shifted tax burden from wealthy corporations to middle & working classes....

who have lower than avg wages, to begin with.

The debt is the result of the 80% tax cuts given to corporations and the wealthy during the Jindal administration. NO discussions were held among the politicians on rolling any of that back, which would FIX the problem. INSTEAD, they elected to ADD taxes to the average person.

The lower a person's income, the more a sales tax impacts them. And in Louisiana, unlike in many states, GROCERIES and prescription medications are taxes. So a working class person can't even elect to avoid the added cost by not buying something. The politicians made it impossible, when they chose to tax necessities.