The Associated Press is reporting that the Revenue Study Commission, that ambitious gaggle of state lawmakers tasked with studying the efficacy of billions of dollars in tax breaks, exemptions and credits Louisiana has extended to businesses for decades, may not be of much benefit in terms of making recommendations that would lead to more revenue for state government. The commission’s chairman, Rep. Joel Robideaux, R-Lafayette, tells the AP he doesn’t anticipate the panel laying out a list of tax breaks it thinks should be eliminated or adjusted.
Louisiana offers nearly $7 billion in tax relief to business and industry. But the commission has little serviceable information with which to work:
For some tax breaks, there’s no data to review because no agency’s tracking their use or their benefits. For others, lawmakers hear tales of doom and gloom if they question whether to discontinue a tax exemption or credit.
And the legislators have no model for comparing the worth of tax breaks against each other.
In rendering his ruling, District Judge John Trahan all but called the real estate developer a liar for inconsistencies in his accounts of what prompted him to punch a school teacher unconscious.
Frank’s Casing Crew, now doing business as Frank’s International, will make its final appearance on ABiz’s list of the Top 50 Privately Held Companies in Acadiana this year, and once again it will likely be at the top with more than $1 billion in annual revenues. The 75-year-old company specializing in tubular fabrication and installation services to the oil and gas industry plans to offer shares of its stock to the public for the first time.
The defeat, or rather highjacking of House Bill 420 in the final days of this year's Legislative Session, say Reps. Vincent Pierre and Terry Landry, is the result of the propaganda spread by one unidentified local media outlet and an unnamed former state Representative, but nothing to do with the original legislation's lack of checks, balances or details.
City-Parish Council Chairman Brandon Shelvin heaped steady doses of condescending ire on a Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana executive while failing to reveal his financial ties to a BC/BS rival.
Abbeville native David Primeaux was a popular professor until his death late last year, and while he was successful at camouflaging a dark past, he couldn’t outlive it.
Tehmi Chassion’s failure to recuse himself in the school board’s selection of a group health benefits provider raises ‘serious questions’ on whether he violated state ethics law.
He’s a singer. A songwriter. A piano man. A family man. He’s even got his own Wikipedia entry. He’s David Egan. And he knows ancient secrets about the monolithic stones of Stonehenge that he’s not willing to share.
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