RSS Feed

BATON ROUGE—Legislative committees advanced bills Monday to eliminate a key corporate tax, reduce sales taxes and extend tax incentives for the movie industry.

If the bills become law, they would cut state revenue by hundreds of millions of dollars at a time when many legislators are already worried that the state could be facing another fiscal cliff.

Other bills that moved forward Monday would reinstate an annual three-day sales tax holiday for purchases of guns and ammunition, provide $5 million in tax incentives for crisis pregnancy centers and exempt prescription drugs and insulin from local sales tax.

The committee actions came after the Louisiana House Conservative Caucus, which has 42 members, and the House Freedom Caucus announced they would oppose raising a cap on state spending to pay for recurring items.

Thanks to federal pandemic aid and relative strength in the economy, Louisiana has a $1.6 billion budget surplus. Gov. John Bel Edwards has proposed spending the extra money on infrastructure projects and ongoing items like pay raises for teachers.

But under a formula designed to limit overall spending, lawmakers can appropriate only $500 million of that total unless there is a two-thirds vote in each house to set aside the cap. And if lawmakers maintain the cap and approve new tax cuts, that could create new constraints on spending.

At its meeting Monday, the Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee advanced and amended version of Senate Bill 1, which would repeal the corporate franchise tax over four years starting in 2025.

Sen. R.L. Bret Allain II, R-Franklin, the committee’s chairman and the sponsor of the bill, said he thinks the tax has “been an impediment for us to attract good companies here.”

But the tax brought in $350 million in fiscal 2022, and some fear its repeal could worsen a reduction in state revenues coming in 2025, when a temporary sales tax increase expires. 

Allain sought to address those concerns by adding the phase-out through an amendment and linking the proposal with Senate Bill 6, which would reduce the rebates under the Quality Jobs Program. 

The committee also advanced an amended version of Senate Bill 2, which also was proposed by Allain. It would call for a constitutional amendment to phase out a tax on business inventory and establish a maximum for exemptions under an industrial property tax exemption program.

Some lawmakers raised concern that eliminating the inventory tax would lead to increases in other taxes. Before the amendments, legislative analysts had estimated that the bill would reduce state revenues by $373 million over five years.

“It’s like buying a cat in a bag,” said Sen. Eddie J. Lambert, R-Gonzales. “You don’t know what you’re getting, you just know that you’re swapping it.”

Meanwhile Monday, the House Ways & Means Committee voted 9-4 to advance a bill by Rep. Tony Bacala, R-Prairieville, that would start reducing the temporary portion of the sales tax a year earlier than planned.

The temporary amount, 0.45%, was added in 2018 to help the state dig out of a $2 billion budget hole. Bacala’s bill would reduce the extra tax to 0.25% next year, costing the state $210 million in revenue before the tax expires.

“It forces us to start addressing the impending fiscal cliff early,” Rep. Bacala said.

But Rep. Tanner Magee, R-Houma, countered: “I don’t understand the logic of reducing the salary intentionally because I’m going to lose my job.”

The Ways & Means Committee also advanced House Bill 562 by House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzalez, which provides a 10-year extension for tax credits to companies shooting movies in Louisiana.

Ending a suspension of the sales tax holiday for gun purchases earlier than previously planned would reduce state revenues by $2.6 million over two years, legislative analysts said. The bill was moved forward Monday by the Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee.

The House Ways and Means Committee also supported House Bill 249 by Rep. Chris Turner, R-Ruston, to exempt prescription drugs and insulin from local sales taxes.

Some lawmakers said this would cause a hole in local revenue in some areas. Legislative analysts estimated the local jurisdictions could lose tens of millions in revenue.

Turner said his aim was to help the elderly and people suffering from illness to pay less for medicine they need to live. But referring to local authorities, he said, “If I can’t come to an agreement with locals… I won’t bring this bill to the House floor.”
 

There were some pretty good thunderstorms across south Louisiana on April 24, 1953 — the kind we see regularly when fronts slide through the area.

Nobody suspected they were the beginning of a series of downpours that eventually sent every stream in south Louisiana way out of its banks.

Twelve people died as a direct result of the floods they caused. Damage was estimated at $35 million, second only to the harm brought to Louisiana by the great flood of 1927.

The area between the Atchafalaya and Sabine rivers got the worst of it.

Weather records show two spates of especially heavy rainfall, April 17 through May 5, and May 11 through May 19, with downpours ranging from 10 inches to more than 35 inches.

“Lake Charles … suffered the most damaging flood in its history, and 15,000 people were left homeless. Upstream on the Calcasieu River the smaller towns of Oakdale and Kinder were hard hit. …

"At the crest of the flood, 60 percent of [Lake Charles] was under water … and 2,000 homes were flooded. The barracks area of the Lake Charles Air Force Base had to be evacuated, and water covered many of the operating airstrips,” according to a report by the U.S. Geological Survey.

“The most remarkable [flooding] occurred in the Calcasieu River basin, and the Cocodrie-Courtableau Bayou system, and the lower Sabine River,” according to the report.

Longtime residents of Oakdale told the local newspaper that the Calcasieu River overflows were “the worst … ever witnessed and that more homes were involved by flood waters and torrential rain waters than ever before,”

Records kept by the National Weather Service in Lake Charles show that the 1953 marks are still the highest ever seen at several places on the Calcasieu River, including Glenmora, Oakdale, Oberlin and Kinder. Water levels reached on Bayou Nezpique at Basile, Bayou des Cannes at Eunice, Bayou Cocodrie at Clearwater, and Bayou Courtableau at Washington are also still records.

There was no gauge on Bayou Courtableau in 1927, but older citizens said the 1953 flood was “nearly as high.” A resident of Beggs, just north of Washington where bayous Boeuf and Cocodrie merge to form the Courtableau, said he had not seen Bayou Boeuf “that high in 50 years.”

More than 500 people were evacuated from Washington, Beggs, Dubuisson and Garland. Port Barre was “hard hit by the overflow  … with about 40 families forced out of their homes,” according to another report.      

The Southern Pacific line was “put out of commission … when workmen, who had been feverishly sand bagging approaches to a trestle about a mile north of Washington, were forced to give up as the banks collapsed.”          

The Eunice News reported May 21 that the town was “the center of a seriously flooded five-parish area. … St. Landry, Evangeline, Acadia, Allen, and Jeff Davis have suffered serious crop damage as well as property loss. …

"Nearly every major stream in the area has broken all records in heights. … Hard hit were travelers who were caught in the area, some of whom are marooned here.

“The Highway Department was routing all west-bound traffic east to Krotz Springs, thence to Alexandria and Leesville, but … had to discontinue this routing because
of road blocks east of DeQuincy.”

In Vermilion Parish, Gueydan was hit by “one of the hardest rains since 1940,” the Abbeville Meridional reported. The deluge flooded “all of the lower parts of the town, places that have not been under water since 1940.”

Gueydan was of many towns inundated in 1940 when a stalled hurricane dropped record rainfalls across a wide swath of south Louisiana.

As in 1940, heavy rains were also reported in Kaplan, Erath, Delcambre, and Maurice.

The Vermilion River overflowed into Abbeville streets and into the Steen syrup mill and the town’s water and light plant, and the downpours there also brought a new take to the term “raining cats and dogs.”

According to the Meridional, “Ulysse Broussard, a street department employee, discovered a three-foot alligator on Magdelen Square early Monday morning. … It has not even been theorized how the reptile got to the square, but it rained hard enough Sunday night to have ‘rained’ something. It could be alligators.”

You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.

Members of the Basin Brew Fest Planning Committee on Tuesday presented a ceremonial check for $24,450.88 to the Morgan City Council. The money was raised by the March 25 craft beer-tasting event put on by the Morgan City government and Morgan City Main Street. The proceeds will go to the Block 27 project, which includes plans for restoring the Lawrence Park gazebo, working on the fountain and maybe adding some fitness equipment. Present Tuesday were, from left: committee members Will Montgomery, Jordan Price and Jeremy Price; Morgan City Mayor Pro Tem Lou Tamporello; and committee members Bobby Dufrene, Bonnie Knoblach, Beth Chiasson, Sadie Rankin and Jason Pye. Not pictured is Kerry McCloy.

The Review/Bill Decker

The following are the radio dispatch logs from the Morgan City Police Department. To report unlawful or suspicious activity, call the police department at 985-380-4605.
Saturday, April 22
9:35 a.m. 1400 block of Sandra Street; Alarm.
10:32 a.m. 1300 block of Walnut Drive; Suspicious person.
10:40 a.m. 1000 block of La. 70; Vehicle accident.
11:25 a.m. 300 block of Everett Street; Stolen vehicle.
12:30 p.m. 1600 block of La. 70; Vehicle accident.
2:28 p.m. Area of U.S. 90 Westbound; Complaint.
2:38 p.m. 7300 block of La. 182; Complaint.
2:56 p.m. Area of La. 182; Complaint.
Sunday, April 23
7:31 a.m. 400 block of Belanger Street; Theft.
8:08 a.m. 900 block of Fourth Street; Disturbance.
8:52 a.m. 5000 block of Railroad Avenue; Complaint.
2:48 p.m. 1600 block of Filmore Street; Medical.
3:32 p.m. 1000 block of La. 70; Hit and run.
3:39 p.m. 1000 block of Fourth Street; Complaint.
3:43 p.m. 900 block of Short Street; Animal complaint.
4:14 p.m. 300 block of Louisa Street; Crash.
4:36 p.m. 2400 block of Sixth Street; Medical.
4:48 p.m. 3000 block of Allison Street; Reckless operation.
7:27 p.m. 2400 block of Sixth Street; Mental patient.
8:11 p.m. 8300 block of La. 182; Loud music.
8:37 p.m. 300 block of Terrebonne Street; Assistance.
9:42 p.m. 900 block of Duke Street; Welfare check.
9:43 p.m. 1400 block of Bernice Street; Stand by.
11:29 p.m. 300 block of Halsey Street; Assistance.
11:30 p.m. Fifth/Louisiana streets; Patrol request.
Monday, April 24
12:42 a.m. 700 block of Onstead Street; Assistance.
2:54 a.m. 3200 block of Vine Drive; Dist