Allain aims for tax reform, including lower income tax rates

Franklin Republican Bret Allain has plans for the last three years of his third and final consecutive term in the state Senate: Pushing for a major reform of Louisiana's taxation system, including a cut in personal income tax rates.

Allain spoke about his plans Wednesday at a St. Mary Chamber wrap-up luncheon at the Petroleum Club of Morgan City.

"I never thought I'd be a tax nerd," Allain said after his remarks. "I have to be one because of my position."

That position is chairman of the Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee, which makes his plans more than idle speculation. The idea, he said, is to lower tax rates while broadening the state's tax base.

Those plans, still being worked out, include:

--A cut in the top personal income tax rate from 6% to 3-3.5%.

--Phasing out the state's inventory tax while protecting the revenue the inventory tax provides to local governments.

"It would be quite a trick, but I think we can pull it off," Allain said.

--Reducing severance taxes and cutting the number of exemptions available to energy producers who pay the taxes according to the amount of oil and gas they extract.

"Simplicity and predictability in taxes are what we desperately need in Louisiana," Allain said.

The senator is no fan of another proposed tax change: a possible new sales tax for teacher and staff pay under consideration by the St. Mary Parish School Board.

The board is scheduled to talk about a proposed 0.45% sales tax at its regular meeting Nov. 12 at the Central Office Complex in Centerville.

Allain sits on the State Bond Commission, which must allow the tax measure to be placed on the parish's ballot. His opposition led the board to trim the proposal from 0.5% to 0.45%. The board eventually withdrew the measure from consideration because of the COVID-19 pandemic and a problem with the language developed for the ballot by the Secretary of State's Office.

School officials say they need the $4 million the tax would raise each year to make district salaries more attractive and to help it compete for other parishes for talented teachers and other personnel.

"I'm not against a teacher pay raise," Allain said after Wednesday's luncheon. "Teachers are underpaid and underappreciated. But the timing is bad."

COVID-19 and economic restrictions designed to prevent the disease's spread pushed St. Mary's unemployment rate to near 15% in May. Joblessness was still at 9.2% in September. By then, the parish's economy had been slumping for more than five years because of depressed oil prices.

The results of the 2020 Census are likely to show that St. Mary lost 10% of its population in the last decade, Allain said.

"We're hurting," Allain said. "If you add an additional burden, we'll be hurting more."