Jeremy Alford and David Jacobs: The governor gets aggressive on tax policy

Gov. Jeff Landry replaced the entire membership of the Louisiana Tax Commission roughly a month ago, on Feb. 23, quietly marking the beginning of an aggressive drive to reshape the way taxpayer revenue bounces around the state.
The otherwise bold move was lost against the backdrop of the new governor asking for structural changes at the state’s economic development agency and demanding merger ideas to streamline the departments and offices related to natural resources.
The Tax Commission, as it turns out, was also targeted for sweeping changes during Landry’s first weeks as the Bayou State CEO.
Supporters believe the membership alterations could help the Landry Administration as it prepares to launch a broad overhaul of the state’s tax system in 2025. But, as is usually the case in Capitoland, there’s always more to the story.
The focus of the Tax Commission is narrowly drawn. It has oversight over local property tax collections and hears appeals of assessments.
The prior panel, under the leadership of former Tax Commission Chair Lawrence Chehardy, made enemies on both sides of these disputes — with assessors and business interests. (Chehardy, a former longtime Jefferson Parish assessor, said he stepped down from the Commission voluntarily in December.)
Along the way, Commission members also drew the ire of inquisitive lawmakers, like current Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson, who could never quite get his questions about property taxes answered as a state representative.
After hard-fought battles in and outside of courtrooms and the Legislature, business lobbyists, too, have been eager for changes at the Commission.
“That was a place that needed an overhaul,” said Advantous co-owner Jason Decuir, the former executive counsel at the Louisiana Department of Revenue and the current chair of LABI’s Executive Committee.
During an interview for an episode of the LaPolitics Report podcast (Spotify/Apple) being released Monday, April 8, DeCuir added, “The governor is making a focus on reforming the tax structure, and I think he’s starting to put the right type of people in position to be able to help facilitate these changes that are likely to come in the fiscal session.”
When the regular session convened earlier this month, it seemed like freshman Rep. Beth Anne Billings of St. Charles Parish was positioned to follow up on Landry’s opening salvo with a bill to transfer the Tax Commission from the Governor’s Office to its previous home at the Department of Revenue.
Billings and Nelson, who initially supported the legislation, said the department already handles other tax matters, so putting the Commission under its umbrella would be logical, more efficient and cost-effective.
But none of that matters anymore. Nelson said the bill has been paused for the session and is highly unlikely to move.
Communicating via text, Nelson said a series of meetings led him to conclude that additional oversight from his department wouldn’t be necessary and the new members would be more cooperative than their predecessors. 
Giving the Revenue Department control over the Tax Commission, however, would have also put Nelson in a place to directly address one of his major policy platforms as a state legislator and then as a gubernatorial candidate: eliminating income taxes.
While the commission doesn’t have jurisdiction over income taxes, Nelson has long advocated for replacing the lost revenue from removing income taxes with higher property taxes, along with sales tax adjustments and possibly other mechanisms.
Despite intentions, Chehardy said there’s already an avenue for people to follow if they have a beef with the commission. 
“If you check the record,” Chehardy said, “I think the courts have upheld what the Commission did many more times than not.”
While often viewed as critical of the commission, the Louisiana Assessors’ Association did not take a position on Billings’ legislation, according to General Counsel Brian Eddington.
But that doesn’t mean assessors were happy with the previous commission’s approach to policymaking, which Eddington described generally as overreach.
“A lot of the problems that Richard [Nelson] was trying to address [with the Billings legislation] were attributable to the prior Tax Commission, more specifically the prior chairman,” Eddington said. “He was convinced that it was his job to be the supervisor of the 64 elected assessors, which is nowhere in the Constitution.”
As for our elected assessors, Chehardy said most do a good job. But some can be unresponsive to taxpayers who question their assessment, Chehardy added, and some seemed to expect the commission to rule in their favor without presenting compelling evidence.
Nelson said the commission was moved out of the Department of Revenue under former administrator Charles Abels, who told lawmakers during a hearing that he wanted more autonomy to handle human resources issues. (Abels was arrested in 2019 and accused of committing payroll fraud while working for the Commission.)
While commissioners serve at the pleasure of the governor, Chehardy argued having staggered terms would be a better system. The state loses institutional knowledge when the entire board is changed out all at once, like Landry just did, he said.
LaPolitics asked Chehardy if staggered terms would actually make board appointments less political. His answer, of course, was predictable.
“Everything is political,” Chehardy said.
Landry’s new appointments to the Tax Commission are Brett K. Frazier, Kevin D. Guidry, Allen D. Leone Sr., Gregory P. Romig and Craig P. Roussel (as chairman).
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