Back in 1999, Louisiana embarked on a process to create a vision for the state with a focus on economic development. It was called Vision 2020 and it laid out a master plan based on priorities that would move Louisiana forward. It’s notable that in analyzing the state’s “weaknesses” at the time it highlighted “a […]

This week the House Ways & Means Committee moved on a host of bills dealing with revenues after two days and many hours of discussion. It was a positive and necessary step for those who favor comprehensive tax reform, but whether it really means much of anything is uncertain. The bills run a pretty wide […]

With the 2017 legislative session reaching the halfway point, the House of Representatives has sent a budget to the Senate that is sure to get a lot of scrutiny, if not outright revision. In doing so the House chose not to appropriate the full amount of available revenues, voting instead to budget only 97.5-percent of […]

Now that action has been taken with regard to the governor’s Commercial Activity Tax proposal, it is time to take the next step and move forward with other ideas, during this session, to address the fiscal issues that have troubled Louisiana over the last several years. Key to that is a tax structure that is […]

After two weeks the 2017 legislative session is off to a lumbering start with more questions than answers on the table, especially with regard to the state’s fiscal affairs. Most of the activity has been in House committees where the two panels dealing with money matters have been meeting on a regular basis. On the […]

The 2017 legislative session is underway and the big question that looms over the entire proceeding is a pretty basic one: what are lawmakers going to do about tax reform? The answer that seems to be coming back is probably not much. That’s unfortunate. This year was supposed to be the year the Legislature was […]

Governor John Bel Edwards has unveiled his fiscal proposals for the upcoming legislative session and they are sure to get a lot of scrutiny. Clearly, there are some positive elements coupled with others that are raising cautionary flags. That is no doubt to be expected with any tax proposal. More research and understanding of key […]

Leading into this year’s legislative session there’s just one simple message that lawmakers really need to hear. Fix it now. For most of the last decade we have moved from budget crisis to budget crisis. Look at what’s happened: Higher education has been severely cut, tuition has skyrocketed, and TOPS is no longer fully funded. […]

It’s happened relatively quietly, but over the last six months a group of 39 Louisiana educators and other experts have been working to upgrade our state’s academic standards in science. This week those standards won final approval from the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and that’s great news for all of our students. To […]

The opening line in 24/7 Wall Street’s description of Louisiana’s business climate could hardly be more damning: “No state is worse for business than Louisiana.” That unfortunately coincides with another new ranking list, this one from U.S. News & World Report, that landed Louisiana at number 50 in its index of the best states. At […]