LA lawmakers says no tax reform special session

There will not be a tax reform special session this year, but House Speaker Phillip DeVillier says the goal for this Legislature is to pass some meaningful reforms in the near future to bring more businesses to the state. DeVillier says he would like to get suggestions from the Louisiana Department of Economic Development.

“Bringing in LED and asking them what businesses they are trying to recruit to Louisiana, and which ones they are being useful with, why are they successful, and then probably even more importantly which ones aren’t we able to get to Louisiana and why.”

DeVillier says before legislators hold a special session on tax reform, they would like to get more input from business leaders and state agencies to find out what’s keeping businesses from locating and growing in Louisiana.

“There telling us we have a major issue with inventory tax or we have a major issue with the corporate income rate or franchise tax or maybe they tell us its our infrastructure or our workforce.  You know we just don’t know.”

DeVillier says instead of holding a tax reform special session this year, he’s asked the House Ways and Means and Commerce committees to hold meetings over the next several months to get an idea on what changes need to be made

“It’s way to early to start trying to do tax reform and fail.  We owe it to our people to do a really good job with this, and do everything we can to try to fix our tax structure in our state.”