Información
A look at Louisiana politics from Chaplain Hy McEnery and Christopher Tidmore
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15 NOV. 2024 · On this week’s show, Hy and Christopher wonder if a deal could coming together to preserve the Film, Live Performance, Digital, Quality Jobs and Historic Restoration tax credits?
It looks like a compromise may be in the works, according to highly placed sources who spoke to The Louisiana Weekly on the condition of anonymity, but it remains less clear how the Landry administration could plug an additional $500-million hole in the budget. Retaining those credits would create such a deficit. Absent other tax changes, the legislature would find it difficult to achieve the governor’s desired three percent flat income tax rate on individuals, 3.5 on corporations, abolition of the state corporate franchise tax, as well as enacting a permanent $2,000 per year pay increase for teachers. In fact, the potential fiscal hole may have grown even larger after the La. House rejected a slew of sales tax hikes on Thursday, November 14, 2024. That decision alone created the potential of an additional $500 million deficit.
In the Special Session’s first week, a series of tax changes (including a constitutional amendment) comfortably earned better than a 2/3 majority of the Louisiana House of Representatives, but one major piece of legislation failed by one vote. Many GOP legislators felt deeply uncomfortable instituting several new sales taxes – especially on boat storage. Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson maintained in the House Ways & Means Committee a week prior that the package had to pass in its entirety, as written. He argued that eliminating any element would unbalance the revenue-neutral nature of the entire reform.
That was also the case that Gov. Jeff Landry made in a private Thursday morning meeting less than 15 hours after he opened the Special Session on Tax Reform on Nov. 6, 2024. Landry asked several skeptical legislators to support the entire package of bills in the House, both in committee and on the floor. However, the Governor reportedly added would be willing to reconsider the sunset of several of the more popular credits and exemptions by the time the package of bills reached the La. Senate Revenue & Fiscal Affairs committee. Nevertheless, Landry’s pleas ended up being insufficient to save HB10 one week later to pass certain sales tax hikes, but pressure from the governor proved enough to convince the House members to sunset some of the most popular tax credits for the arts and historic restoration.
By better than 80 votes, the La. House voted to abolish the Louisiana Quality Jobs Program which rebates up to 6 percent of annual payroll expenses for up to 10 years and costed $153.3 million in 2023; the Film, Digital, and Live Performance Tax Credits which cost collectively $250 million and provide 25 percent rebate on production costs and 35 percent on labor costs; and the Historic Restoration Credit which covers 20 percent of construction costs at just over $100 million.
In addition, companion legislation had sought to renew the soon-to-expire .45 cent “temporary” sales tax along with imposing sales taxes on services previously untaxed. It was the imposition of many of these new sales taxes which ran into trouble. One of the two bills barely passed, while the other failed. House Bill 10 crossed the 2/3 finish line by one vote, 71-33. In fact, to insure passage, the legislation had to be amended to replace the expiring 0.45-cent state sales tax with an 0.4-cent sales tax, a reduction of .05-cents. As a result, the La. Treasury would receive roughly $50 million per year less per year. After approving another 47 amendments without objection, House members did deft Landry by maintaining some sales tax exemptions—including those for the purchase of diapers and Bibles.
Despite the pressure which the governor put on wavering state representatives exactly seven days before, House Bill 9 (which would have raised sales taxes on may of items listed below) failed by one vote on Thursday, November 15. Landry vowed to push for another vote. Interestingly though, the failure of HB9 in the House might provide a pathway for a key Senate committee to also save the Film, Live Performance, and Historic Restoration Tax Credits in the coming week.
Originally, HB9 and HB10 would have placed sales taxes on:
1 Storage for boats and vessels of less than 50 tons load displacement and trailers along with auto club services and fees;
2 Car wash services;
3 Coin-operated machines;
4 Computer software installation, repair and maintenance;
5 Condominium timeshare and exchange services;
6 Dating services and marriage bureaus;
7 Delivery, shipping, freight and transportation services associated with taxable sale of tangible personal property;
8 Non-medical diet and weight reduction services;
9 Immovable property repair, maintenance and installation services (excluding new construction, reconstruction and capital improvements);
10 Information services such as research publications, financial reports, wire services, and news printing for publications;
11 Interior decorating and design services;
12 Intrastate limousine, bus, and van transportation services;
13 Taxi cab and ride-share services;
14 Landscaping, lawn care and horticulture services;
15 Laundry;
16 Linen supply services;
17 machine or equipment rental;
18 Mailing services;
19 Marina services;
20 Parking;
21 Personal fitness training;
22 Pet grooming, boarding, sitting, training and obedience services;
23 Photography and photographic studio services;
24 Photofinishing and film development services;
25 Private process server services;
26 Public opinion and research polling services;
27 Quilting, embroidery and monogramming services;
28 Repairs, maintenance and installation of tangible personal property;
29 Repossession services;
30 Restroom services;
31 Security services including locksmith, security/alarm system monitoring, private investigation, and background checks;
32 Event planning and catering services;
33 Spa services, massages by massage parlors and steam baths;
34 Rental spaces for meetings, conventions, entertainment events, weddings, banquets, parties and other short-term business/social events;
35 Storage space beyond the furnishing of cold storage (which is already taxed);
36 Tanning services;
37 Tattooing, piercing, scarification and branding;
38 Travel agents, travel packages and travel clubs;
39 Cable TV services, direct-to-home satellite services, video programming services and satellite radio;
40 Extended warranty agreements and service contract services;
41 Waste collection and disposal services (excluding municipal waste management);
42 Personal shopping;
43 Photo finishing
44 Repairs of personal property
45 Wrecking and towing services; and
46 Lobbying services.
In short, Louisiana essentially would adopt a Canadian-style “GST” or “Goods and Services Tax” system. Prescription drug purchases would be excluded, but very little else. Of course, the combined sales tax rate in Orleans and many other parishes would amount to 9.45 percent rather than the 15 percent in most Canadian provinces. That is unless a deal is cut.
There are a variety of ways of preserving the aforementioned popular tax credits, along with exempting unpopular sales taxes on boat storage and lobbying. In fact, Landry and his House allies tried to do just that to corral the necessary 70 votes yet they came up short. Rather than pass HB9 as planned on Thursday, the House adjourned until Monday, Nov. 18. Gov. Landry now hunts for the extra vote.
With the sales tax hikes now in danger, other parts of the plan which have passed the La House, but face an uphill battle in the Senate such ending the five incentive tax credits, now might be reconsidered. One key member of the upper chamber has proposed a slightly higher personal income tax to save the popular credits and sales tax exemptions.
Outside of a slightly higher income tax, many revenue raising proposals, such as a statewide property tax are considered “dead-on-arrival” on arrival in the La. Senate. Unlike the La. House members, Senators could opt to the .45-cent sales tax in full. In fact, they could raise that additional sales tax to a full penny. That change alone would create an additional $600 million in revenue, yet many representatives of impoverished districts would find such a jump hard on their constituents. After all, keeping .4-cent sales tax barely passed the House.
Instead, Sen. Franklin Foil (R-Baton Rouge), the chairman of the Senate Revenue & Fiscal Affairs committee, has floated the idea of a more modest income tax cut, reducing the top rate from 4.25 to 3.5 rather than Landry’s favored 3 percent. For each .1 percent increase in the individual income tax rate, the La Treasury would earn an extra $100 million. Foil suggested that the tax rate could go as high as 3.5 percent, earning an additional $500 million, whilst still cutting taxes and most middle-class Louisianans.
In addition, Foil also has proposed that extra revenue could save some of the tax credits for film, performance, and developers of historic buildings. Under his model, Louisiana would levy 3.5 percent on both individuals and corporations. Louisiana’s top income tax, though, would not achieve Landty’s goal of falling to third lowest in the nation—just ahead of North Dakota and Arizona at 2.5 percent. Instead, Louisiana would levy a higher top rate than Pennsylvania (3.07) or Indiana (3.05) and tied with Ohio (3.5). The Pelican State would be tied for fifth.
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8 NOV. 2024 · Hy and Christopher are joining in our post-election roundtable with Jeff Crouere of http://www.ringsidepolitics.com and Curtis Robinson of http://hunter-gathererspodcast.com to analyze Trump’s unexpected landslide victory. What are the reasons, and how did his coattails make a difference? Two examples are demonstrated in the second and sixth congressional districts in Louisiana, explained below.
Later in the show, we explore Governor Jeff Landry’s tax reform proposal. Answering growing legislative opposition to his tax reform proposals, including the elimination of the film, live performance, historic restoration, quality jobs, and sales tax exemptions on everything from boat storage to wedding planners, Landry appeared before joint session of the legislature, pleading for a repeal of the 1,400-page tax code in favor of a 3% flat tax individuals, 3.5% on corporations, and a broader sales tax on everything but prescription drugs—a tax which would be eliminated.
Carter Re-Elected with 183,897 votes out of 305,019
By Christopher Tidmore
A group of Garden District voters expressed surprise to The Louisiana Weekly on the evening of November 5th that they had found themselves suddenly redrawn into Steve Scalise’s congressional seat. The overwhelming group of Caucasian Democratic voters were perplexed why their “deep blue” precincts ended up in the GOP majority district.
The loss of several key precincts which had long been part of Louisiana’s Second Congressional District, as a side effect of the shifts all across the state to allow the creation of the new minority-majority Sixth Congressional District, could have proven a liability for Rep. Troy Carter. Some of the incumbent’s most reliable core constituencies were lost just as the sophomore congressman faced a surprisingly well organized challenge from the Left from Democrat Devin Davis.
With new electorates drawn-in to the Second Congressional District by the legislature last year, Carter could have been forced into a runoff. A perfect storm might have been forming as three Republicans also entered the 2024 contest, drawing away moderate voters. In the end, these GOP contenders collectively earned 30% of the vote, Devin Lance Graham at 13%, Christy Lynch at 14%, and Shondrell Perrilloux at 3%. This GOP strength on election day proved particularly interesting because the Second District boasts of only 16% Republican registration. Therefore, such decent turnout on the right matched with a strong Democratic challenge from the left could have cast Carter into a lower turnout December 7 runoff, where any result was possible.
In the end, though, Troy Carter was easily re-elected on November 5 with 60% of the vote in a seat that is 56% Democratic by registration. The incumbent sophomore congressman campaigned far harder than many observers expected, with extensive television, print, and social media advertising, as well as in-person events. Carter spent a lot of time and money to win back his office, and it showed. Devin Davis, his principal progressive Democratic opponent, ended up only getting 11% of the vote, running fourth.
To claim his second full term, Carter managed to win in excess of 70% of the vote in sone of his core Orleans and Westbank Jefferson precincts, offsetting Davis’ campaign efforts in the River Parishes. Ironically, under the old map, Carter’s margin of victory might have been tighter, but the loss of several Baton Rouge metro precincts to the newly created Sixth District ended up benefiting the New Orleans-based candidate. Carter over-performed in the areas which once constituted his councilmanic and state senate districts.
The New Orleans Congressman returns to a closely divided US House of Representatives in Washington. While he serves on the House Homeland Security and Transportation committees, his unofficial role as a conduit of communication between his two long-time personal friends Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has granted him an outsized role. Carter has played a key role in passing several pieces of legislation.
LA’s Second District Congressman went so far as to create an regular end-of-the-week bipartisan cocktail party in his office for members from all over the country just to keep the lines of communication open between the parties. As a result, Carter’s almost singular role as ambassador between the factions granted him an outsized influence in the previous Congress—which will likely continue into the next.
Fields Returns To US House
By Christopher Tidmore
As chairman of the legislative committee charged with creating a new LA majority-minority district, Cleo Fields himself drew the newly reconstituted Sixth Congressional as a seat so stretched across the state that only a candidate with his level of name recognition could win it. He succeeded—barely. The LA State Senator will return to the United States Congress after a 28-year absence, yet his victory on November 5, 2024 proved far tighter than any had previously predicted.
Fields won 51% of the vote, avoiding a December 7 runoff by a very close margin. His principal Republican challenger, former State Senator Elbert Guillory, earned 38% of the vote in a district with only 22% GOP registration. The 80-year-old former GOP legislator may have been put into the race as a “sacrificial lamb”, yet both Donald Trump‘s coattails and an estimated 25% of Black men who expressed the willingness to cross party lines in this election allowed him to over-perform. Despite heavily campaigning, Guillory was outspent by Fields almost 10 to 1, yet a runoff almost occurred. Guillory won 25% of the vote in Fields’ home of East Baton Rouge and 50% of the vote in West Baton Rouge. In Guillory’s home of St. Landry Parish, he earned 55% of the vote, the same result as he won in Point Coupee and Avoyelles. In Natchitoches and Rapides, Guillory topped 57%.
While the Republican former state senator over-performed, the same cannot be said for Fields’ three other Democratic challengers. Quentin Anthony Anderson won 8%, Wilken Jones, Jr. 1%, and Peter Williams 2%. Guillory had counted upon a division in the Democratic vote to carry him to a December runoff, where a lower turnout might have given the Republican a fighting chance.
However, strong voter loyalty in the more populous cities, a 66% result for Fields in Shreveport’s Caddo and in 62% EBR, proved just enough to carry him into narrow first primary victory. Odds are he would have won in a runoff regardless, given the Democratic lien of the district.
The question is, though, how long will Cleo Fields keep his current congressional seat before it is drawn away from him? He lost his congressional career three decades ago when his minority-majority seat was ruled to be to excessively gerrymandered. It could happen again. The United States Supreme Court has agreed to review the constitutionality of the lines of the 6th District. Plaintiffs claim that the oddly shaped district which runs from Baton Rouge to Shreveport is too geographically distorted—and only constituted on racial grounds.
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1 NOV. 2024 · Hy and Christopher host Republican National Committeeman Roger Villere, who has been on the trail with the Trump Campaign as well as former Aspen Daily News Editor and prominent political columnist Curtis Robinson, who has been reading the pulse in Washington DC. Our two guests deconstruct the October surprises from the Madison Square Garden comic to President Biden‘s “Garbage” comments. We make predictions of where the campaign is going, and who is winning coming into election day.
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25 OCT. 2024 · Hy and Christopher attempt to forecast the upcoming election’s result with two special guests, GOP congressional candidate Elbert Guillory and famed political consultant James Farwell.
Guillory joins Hy and Christopher to kick off the show, outlining how he has a chance of victory in a district which should not be friendly for Republicans. Early voting may provide a clue to why he is so upbeat.
In 2020, 986,428 people in Louisiana voted early. As of Thursday evening October 25, 519,304 people in the Pelican State had cast their ballots, which far exceeds the same total at the same point in early voting four years ago.
Deputy Secretary for Communications Joel Watson at the Louisiana Secretary of State's Office told KLFY TV, while 38 percent of total votes came from early voting in 2020, they predict 40 to 45 percent of total votes will come from early voting this year. “Statewide, we are seeing a 10 percent increase in in-person, early voting,” said Watson.
Simultaneously this year, more Republicans than Democrats have cast their ballots early. In 2020, more Democrats voting early exceeded Republicans. “In 2020, those who are registered Democrats accounted for about 45 percent of the electorate through five days of early voting,” Watson said. “This year, we’re seeing that flip, and about 45 percent of the electorate over five days of early voting this year is Republican.”
Watson warned that early voting did not necessarily signal higher overall turnout, but may only indicate a change in voting patterns. “For this year, for instance, we’re seeing a higher in-person early voting number, but we expect turn out to be around about the same as we saw in 2020, which was around 70 percent,” he explained.
Still, some LA GOP candidates see increased early voting as their pathway to victory. As noted, our guest former Republican state Senator Elbert Guillory seeks an upset in the newly redrawn 6th Congressional District over frontrunner (former Democratic Congressman) Cleo Fields. “We are seeing tremendous enthusiasm” in early voting, Guillory explained in his interview with Hy and Christopher.
Besides Fields, four other Democrats are running in the 6th District along with the Black Republican from Opelousas. That potentially divides the left-wing electorate, he reasoned. Higher GOP turnout in the November primary than in past years, which Guillory believes is signaled by the early voting numbers, could keep Fields below the 50 percent threshold of victory. In a consequent December runoff, where historically Republicans have exceeded Democrats in turnout, Guillory maintained that he stands a good chance of upsetting Fields’ bid to return to the US House, even though Guillory runs a Republican contender in this solidly Democratic district. Both candidates represented Black majority districts within the newly drawn congressional seat and actually served together as state senators in the LA Legislative Black Caucus.
Hy and Christopher then switch gears and examine the state of the presidential race with one of the greats of political consulting in modern American history, James Farwell. We focus upon how tight the election is nationally, and how voting trends show that Donald Trump remains evenly tied with Kamala Harris with just over a week remaining. It is anyone’s guess what could happen, but Farwell warns that Republican moderates are still up for grabs.
Farwell does note that the GOP possesses a real shot of seizing control of the US Senate, perhaps with as many as 54 seats, thanks to Trump‘s coattails as well as those who might vote for Harris but wish to put a break on her power, but he agrees with Christopher that the chances may not look so good for the GOP to keep possession of the US House. Harris has coattails of her own in the suburban-held New York and California congressional districts which the GOP relies upon for the party’s congressional majority.
Everyone wonders, however, if the ill partisan feelings of this election cycle will last well beyond election day— no matter which presidential candidate wins. Things get heated in our conversation on this week’s show!
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22 OCT. 2024 · Early voting for the Nov 5 election began on Oct 18, so Hy and Christopher start the show with the message Go Vote! They interview Connie Payton, whose mother memorized and flawlessly recited the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution to earn her right to vote before the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1964, which eliminated barriers preventing millions of non-white Americans from voting. In light of the Nov. 5 election, Connie and her mother’s great grandchild, student filmmaker Daryanna Barrett, are sharing a powerful personal story in a four-minute short film, "Make Your Vote Count," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6XgPBVj3zE.
Then we turn to culture in this “First City of Opera” with our main guest, Raehann Bryce-Davis. The Award-winning mezzo-soprano comes to New Orleans on Oct 22 and teaches the first-ever opera masterclass of students invited from all local universities and HBCUs at Gallier Hall. An evening concert will follow at 2504 Prytania St. in the garden of Opera Guild Home at 5:30 PM—which is open to the public.
She will return to New Orleans on on November 8 and 10 in her role debut as the famed Biblical seductress in Samson and Delilah at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre of the Performing Arts. NOOA's upcoming performance of Samson and Delilah celebrates the North American premiere of the Camille Saint-Saëns work in New Orleans just over 130 years ago.
Bryce-Davis shares her expertise and perspectives as one of the world's leading African-American mezzo-sopranos with Hy and Christopher. She tells her story of how a girl with Jamacian roots who grew up in Mexico became one of the leading lights of opera. On Tuesday, October 22, 2024 to teach some of the most gifted vocal students from several local universities including Xavier, Dillard, Southeastern, UNO, Loyola, and Tulane. Afterwards her private garden concert for these students as well as patrons of the New Orleans Opera Association at 2504 Prytania St. is also open to the public. A limited number of tickets remain available at http://neworleansopera.org or by calling the box office at (504) 529-3000.
Here are the two excerpts which Hy and Christopher play on the show: https://youtu.be/McTqkE2gZO4with pianist Kamal Khan at the National Opera Center, and a modern English language piece https://youtu.be/R9CjdGb6RjE.
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11 OCT. 2024 · Do Government Deficits Elect Harris? Or Has Trump Gained with Poorer Voters Who Benefited From The Biden Spending Spree?
Hy & Christopher welcome Graham McFarlane, an economic forecaster with a Harvard MBA, who has a particular theory on who is going to win the presidential election. Despite his personal sympathies, he thinks that the level of government spending has widened to encompass almost 50% of the population, and he believes that gives Harris an advantage.
Interestingly, Christopher disagrees based on the data. Not only are Trump and Harris tied in the swing states, but the rise in Trump’s support has come from poor, formally Democratic Caucasian-majority working class counties—which have been net beneficiaries of increased government spending over the last two decades. And for the first time, early voting requests from those counties—and voter registration gains within them—have benefited the Republicans.
Christopher notes the example last week of Pennsylvania where for the first time in just over four years (10 statewide elections) that Republicans out-requested Democrats in mail absentees ballots. By midweek, there were 8,299 Republicans requesting mail-in ballots versus 8,079 Democrats. More importantly, many if those mail-in ballot requests came from some of the Keystone State’s most disadvantaged counties. Moreover, while Pennsylvania Democrats still enjoy a voter registration advantage, it has shrunk from 1.2 million in 2008 to just 325,000 today, a rightward shift that has occurred even as government spending has been boosted in some of the same former Democratic counties. That may indicate that Trump is not viewed as a threat to the government largess by these key constituencies.
Wit large, Vice President Harris and former President Trump are virtually deadlocked in the major swing states that will play a deciding role in the election, according to new polling from The Hill and Emerson College Polling. Trump narrowly leads Harris, 49 percent to 48 percent, in Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania; while in Arizona he leads 49 percent to 47 percent. Trump’s leads over Harris in these states are within the plus-or-minus three-point margin of error. The two candidates are deadlocked at 49 percent in Michigan and Wisconsin, while in Nevada Harris leads Trump 48 percent to 47 percent. The poll’s margin of error in Michigan is plus or minus 3.1 points and plus or minus three points in Wisconsin. In Nevada, the margin of error is plus or minus 3.2 points.
Interestingly, Harris lost a point in Arizona and North Carolina since the last Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey was conducted three weeks ago, but gained a point in Georgia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Trump, on the other hand, gained a point in Pennsylvania and North Carolina but lost a point in Georgia and Nevada. Harris’s support remained unchanged in Michigan and Nevada while Trump’s remained unchanged in Arizona and Wisconsin.
McFarlane, Hy, and Christopher go on to talk about the dangerous impact of deficit financing, and how both parties have embraced massive deficits, yet Hy believes that Trump is trying to turn the ship. Christopher remains skeptical.
We also talk about the impending visit of international opera star Raehann Bryce-Davis on October 22 to the Garden District for a sunset concert. It’s a singular opportunity to meet an award winning star. https://noo-internet.choicecrm.net/dist/#/event-details/S0:E471
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4 OCT. 2024 · Hy and Christopher begin by recounting the lonely bipartisan struggle that has been carried by Congressman Troy Carter (D-New Orleans). While his Louisiana Republican colleagues have been firmly behind him in his fight to convince DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas not to approve the new FEMA maps that would drastically increase flood insurance costs, few Democrats or Republicans on the national level have agreed.
Projected increases in flood insurance cost for those outside of hurricane protection defenses under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) are endangering the very existence of many coastal communities in Louisiana. Insurance costs are jumping to $20,000 per year for $100,000 home. Acadian towns like Chauvin are becoming depopulated and nobody either in the Biden or the previous Trump administration has cared
Carter has conducted a lonely fight along with Steve Scalise, Garrett Graves, and Mike Johnson to bring attention to this critical problem. Hy and Christopher lament the lack of progress, and ask the audience to get involved.
Our hosts continue to talk about the flooding in Asheville and Western North Carolina. Most people don’t realize that the area bears a striking resemblance to New Orleans in so far is that it is a bowl, and when floodwaters enter, they are very slow to leave. The example also emphasizes the fact that flood insurance is something that can affect everyone, from the coasts to the mountains.
Later in the show, we talk about how LSU has benefited remarkably in the last couple of years from students matriculating from the northeast and from far out of state. Since 2/3 of college graduates tend to live near their campuses, we have to create new jobs to keep these bright minds in Louisiana. Elimination of the film, live performance, digital, music, and quality jobs tax credits could stop that potential job creation cold.
The governor’s proposal for a flat tax eliminates those job creating tax credits. Jeff Landry doubled down on that proposal at the House Ways and Means committee meeting last Thursday, Oct 3, 2024 proposing a 3 percent flat tax on individuals, and a 3.5 percent flat tax on corporations. The administration also proposed elimination of the corporate franchise tax and major modifications to the inventory tax.
Likewise, in order for Louisiana also to cover the loss of the $455 million in revenue produced from .45 percent sales tax expiring next year, Landry hopes to the legislature to eliminate nearly every tax benefit which goes to the cultural economy as well as many areas of industrial economic development— including the quality jobs credit. Could throwing out “the baby with bathwater” be the economic result of the tax reform?
We can include the show talking about the visit of famed Churchill biographer Sonia Purnell to the Garden District Book Shop on Sunday, October 6 at 4 pm. She is premiering her new book on Pamela Churchill Harriman Kingmaker. The event is free and open to the public. For more information call (504) 895-2266 or visit https://www.gardendistrictbookshop.com/event/launch-sonia-purnell-kingmaker-pamela-harrimans-astonishing-life-power-seduction-and-intrigue
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27 SEP. 2024 · Could enacting a flat tax forestall a larger tax cut and avoid a fiscal cliff for Louisiana? That is the apparent behind-the-scenes logic in the recent proposal put forward by the Landry administration last month, which Hy & Christopher explore on this week’s radio show.
We also talk to Gary Mason of the https://monumentaltask.org/ of the recent attempts to clean the Martin Luther King and Rev. Avery Alexander statues, as well as put up a new monument to the First World War soldiers. They are having a fundraiser raffling off Taylor Swift concert tickets— at better odds of winning than everyone else— https://monumentaltask.org/.
We then move onto discussing the proposed LA Flat Tax. As Christopher Tidmore writes in the Louisiana Weekly:
Quite a few observers were surprised when the governor’s revenue secretary, Richard Nelson, proposed the creation of a Louisiana flat income tax rate of 3.8 percent in the midst of a looming fiscal crisis next year. The increased revenue would allow Louisiana to cover the loss of the $455 million in revenue produced from .45 percent sales tax expiring next year – at least if he also convinces the legislature to eliminate nearly every tax benefit which goes to the cultural economy as well as the “Quality Jobs” program aiding industrial economic development.
Now it appears that Landry’s flat tax proposal also serves a way to ward off an almost equally large income tax cut – instituted by the previous administration. A 2021 state law created a series of conditions, which when met would automatically reduce income tax rates “by multiplying each current rate by the difference between one and the percentage change in individual income tax collections in excess of the individual income tax collections for Fiscal Year 2018-2019 adjusted annually.”
In layman’s terms, existing state law mandates an across-the-board income tax cut of approximately $200-$400 million (depending upon how the formula is calculated), and that would be on top of the automatic sales tax reduction – for an approximate $800-million deficit. This unforeseen tax cut came about because the circumstances which required fully funding the rainy day fund, earning a certain percentage increase in tax revenue, and other specific factors seemed incredibly unlikely to occur in 2021. In other words, the legislature passed a tax cut that they never thought would happen!
However, Louisiana – for just one year – hit all of the unlikely fiscal qualifications requiring an automatic tax cut. Landry has been scrambling to offer another alternative, proposing a tax cut which would not blow a hole in 2025 budgetary revenues. His answer is to create a flat tax, and simultaneously, get rid of every business tax incentive program. In other words, kill the film, music, live performance, digital, economic development and other tax credit benefits as well as the Quality Jobs program—which gives tax subsidies to companies who invest in Louisiana. Collectively, these programs cost the state about $1 billion a year (but keep our cultural economy alive as well).
Through this method, Landry can cut the overall income tax rate even more than the 2021 law mandates, and at the same time allow the sales tax cut to occur. The cultural economy corporate community, from filmmakers to the music industry (who are not fans of Landry in the first place), pay the brunt of the bill – along with certain elements of the L.A.B.I. corporate/chemical/industrial community (who generally supported his GOP opponent Stephen Waguespack and depend upon the Quality Jobs credit).
Louisiana’s poorest citizens would do better under Landry’s Flat Income Tax proposal than the across-the-board tax cut, with the first $12,500 of incomes completely eliminated from taxes instead of a fraction cut off from the current 1.85 percent income tax rate. The regressive .45 percent emergency sales tax, which was instituted eight years ago, would be allowed to expire under his plan as well.
The richest Louisianans would see income taxes fall from 4.25 percent to 3.8 percent. Those making between $12,500 and $50,000 would see an increase from 3.5 percent to 3.8 percent. With the elimination of the tax incentives and the increase on the working-class, the Louisiana budget would approach balance, and Pelican State would fall near the bottom of the list in top income tax rates levied on a state-by-state basis, ahead of only Indiana and Pennsylvania. (Neighbors Texas, Florida, and Tennessee as well as Alaska, Nevada, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming levy no state income tax.)
Gov. Landry is expected to call a special session of the Louisiana Legislature in November to deal with tax reform and fiscal matters.
27 SEP. 2024 · The General and Artistic Director of the New Orleans Opera Lila Palmer joins Hy and Christopher to talk Tosca— and how the Crescent City stands as the 1st City of Opera in the US - American opera got its start in New Orleans in 1796.
Tosca is premiering at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts on Friday, September 27 at 7:30 with a matinee performance on Sunday, September 29 at 2:30. Tickets are available at the box office.
The New Orleans Opera will premiere its next production, Samson and Delilah, on November 8 and 10. The show’s lead, Raehann Bryce, will also be providing a specially concert at the Opera Guild home in the Garden District on the evening of October 22. More information at the https://neworleansopera.org website.
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14 SEP. 2024 · Hy and Christopher both sigh in relief on behalf of the City of New Orleans that Hurricane Francine was not worse. That does not mean that the thousands of homeowners without power or damaged by flooding do not deserve our help and prayers. However, this city could have had a much worse hurricane event, and that’s the subject of today’s show. We are not prepared.
Hy and Christopher point out that since Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana's levees have deteriorated. More importantly, there has been no move to put a floodgate at the Chef Pass and the Rigolets. In other words, no barrier exists to stop storm surge from flowing into Lake Pontchartrain. It is long past time for our politicians to examine this problem.
We both acknowledge that the ABC Presidential Debate may actually change fewer opinions than most pundits believe, but Christopher notes that Taylor Swift’s endorsement could. Even if the pop singer does not get her legions of fans to register to vote, other votes could be changed thanks to a legion of concerned women in Louisiana writing postcards to mothers in Pennsylvania, urging them to vote for Kamala Harris.
A look at Louisiana politics from Chaplain Hy McEnery and Christopher Tidmore
Información
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