Landry promises teacher pay raises with tax reform

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry continues to stump for his tax reform plan. Landry's plan calls for moving the state to a flat income tax, reduce the corporate income tax, and eliminate the corporate franchise tax among other changes.

According to Landry, the plan will have benefits for the state's residents and the state's local governments.

"If this package was to pass, every working man and woman is going to have more money in their pocket," Landry said to WWL's Newell Normand, adding that his proposal would double the retirement income exemption for seniors.

Landry adds that a constitutional amendment in his plan would lead to major gains for Louisiana's teachers.

"We're going to give the teachers a permanent pay raise," Landry said. "We're going to do so by paying down on the (unfunded accrued liability in the teachers retirement plan) and then allow those savings to be used for the teacher pay raise."

Landry says his plan will also allow local governments to bring in more revenue for themselves. Landry wants lawmakers to pass a constitutional amendment lifting the cap onf the severance taxes that local governments can collect. Landry said that such a change could bring windfalls to parishes with oil, gas, and other natural resources.

"We're making a number of different changes that we hope will actually bring locals more revenue than less, and (it) certainly builds an on-ramp for our local governments to be able to raise more revenue if needed with the vote of the people in that locale," Landry said. "When you look at other states that have done much better than us, you see that the local governments have greater flexibility in both budgeting and raising revenue."

If lawmakers approve those and other constitutional amendments during a November special session, voters would decide their fate during the March election.