As of February 2011, the state has a total of 464 tax credits and other exemptions that were enacted by individual statutes.
The amount of CIFT credits claimed during tax years 2005 through 2010 resulted in a tax liability reduction of approximately $3 billion out of a total tax liability of $5.4 billion, an average revenue loss of approximately 55% due to CIFT credits. The amount of IIT credits claimed during tax years 2005 through 2010 resulted in a tax liability reduction of approximately $1.8 billion out of a total tax liability of $16.5 billion, an average revenue loss of approximately 11% due to IIT credits. This money may have been eligible for collection as tax revenue by LDR if these tax credits did not exist.
While determining the average amount of state revenue lost due to CIFT credits and IIT credits, we found that state law does not require agencies that administer tax credits and other exemptions to track and report their return on investment. As a result, it is difficult to determine the overall impact of CIFT and IIT tax credits on Louisiana. In addition, we identified four CIFT credits where only a few entities claimed a significant portion (greater than 50%) of the tax credit.
Robert Travis Scott, president of the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, wrote a four-page letter to Donahue Thursday, expressing his hope that the commission identify low-performing or antiquated programs and reevaluate them. “The commission’s work might also give us a clearer picture of the actual cost of these programs,” Scott writes.
Scott says while many of the programs legislators will analyze are keeping the state competitive for business growth and may have a positive impact on the economy and job creation, there is a “serious lack of available information on some of these programs” and evidence that they don’t receive adequate follow-up and implementation after they are passed into law. In particular, he cites the recent controversy over the alternative fuels tax credit. He says it was not until April of this year that the Department of Revenue created rules to implement the program even though the 2009 specifically called for rules to be made.
We all know how that debacle played out.
Read Scott’s letter here and the Legislative Auditor’s report here.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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