BATON ROUGE – On Friday, Governor Bobby Jindal joined legislators to applaud the incredible victories in the second special session on cutting business taxes and investing in Louisiana’s economic priorities.
Here is the press statement from Governor JIndal's office concerning the special session, just completed. Louisiana has just completed an Ethics special session and is embarking on its regular legislative session:
Jindal said, “Today, we have made another major step forward in making our state one of the best places in the world to raise a family and get a great career. We have sped up the elimination of taxes that are crippling the growth of businesses and detracting future investments. We have sent a signal to the world that Louisiana is not only open for business, but we are working to be one of the best places in the world for businesses to invest, grow and create jobs. We are committed to making Louisiana a place of opportunity for our children so they don’t have to leave the state to find a job and pursue their dreams.
“In this session we have also invested in Louisiana’s future economic growth by making critical investments in levees, coastal restoration, ports, roads, and other area’s important for our recovery and the needs of our entire state. Investing in greater job creation is another vital part of not only making our state more competitive, but making it more attractive to investment and increasing opportunities for Louisianians.”
The following is the balance of a press statement from Governor Jindal’s Office concerning the special session in which much money was invested into the State of Louisiana.
Highlights of Successes in Second Special Session
Reducing Business Taxes
SB12 Accelerates the Elimination of the Tax on Business Investment (MM&E)
·With 120 co-authors, Louisiana is NO LONGER one of only three states in the country that taxes manufacturing machinery and equipment.
·The tax on Manufacturing Machinery and Equipment will be completely eliminated by July 1, 2009 (FY 2010).
SB10 Accelerates the Elimination of the Tax on Capitol Investment (Debt)
·With 125 co-authors, Louisiana is NO LONGER one of the only states in the country to tax business debt.
·The tax on business debt will be completely eliminated by July 1, 2010 (FY 2011).
SB7 Eliminates the Burdensome Tax on Business Utilities
·The “permanent penny” tax on business utilities will NOW be eliminated.
·It is important that we create a climate that not only attracts new business but rewards and supports established businesses already in the state.
SB5 Provides a Tax Deduction for Tuition, Uniforms, and Other Expenses for Students Statewide
·These deductions allow for some educational expenses to be subtracted from taxable income prior to the calculation of tax liability.
·A 50-percent deduction will be provided to eligible taxpayers effective July 1, 2009.
HB9 Re-authorizes Louisiana’s New Markets Tax Credits
·In order to continue Louisiana’s leadership in New Markets investments and carry on the same momentum generated so far, Louisiana’s New Markets Tax Credit will be reauthorized and get an investment of $50 million over three years in targeted key areas.
·With this legislation, New Markets investors can stay in Louisiana.
Investment Priorities for Louisiana’s Surplus
HB46 invests Louisiana’s surplus dollars in five strategic areas:
Transportation and Infrastructure: $530m
Hurricane Protection and Coastal Restoration: $300m
Deferred Maintenance for Higher Education: $75m
Unfunded Accrued Liability (UAL): $60m
Pennington Biomedical ResearchCenter: $50m
Transportation and Infrastructure: $530 Million
$253M will improve roads, bridges, and ports across the state (based on objective criteria by DOTD)
ALL projects in the Port Priority Program will be fully funded.
Dozens of state and parish bridges will be repaired to prevent closure.
Rural roads across the state that are not eligible for a federal match will be repaired.
The Transportation Mobility Fund (TMF) will receive dollars to continue moving plans forward for public-private partnerships.
Louisiana will spend $42.4 million to fund ALL projects in the Port Priority Program, including:
Lake CharlesHarbor and Terminal District: $9.9m
Greater LafourchePort Commission: $8.8m
Port of SouthLouisiana: $6m
TerrebonnePort Commission: $6m
Port of New Orleans: $5.4m
St.BernardPort, Harbor, and Terminal District: $2.5m
Caddo/Bossier Port Commission: $1.7m
Greater OuachitaParishPort Commission: $1.3m
Port of Iberia: $677k
In addition, the state will fund the first phase of an expansion at the Port of New Orleans. With $24.6 million, New Orleans will begin to develop a twenty-acre complex at the Napoleon Container Terminal, expanding terminal capacity by 45 percent and enabling the port to secure the long-term commitment of one of the world’s largest container carriers.
The state will also support the Port of Terrebonne’s improvement and expansion plans with $10 million that will provide the capacity to operate a shipyard facility, which will bring 1,000 new skilled jobs at an average annual salary of $54,000.
$220M will fund new roads and expansions of interstates and major state highways and bridges across the state. Among other projects:
The I-12 corridor will be expanded to six lanes from Baton Rouge to Denham Springs as well as in the Slidell area.
LA28 will be four-laned to complete the east-west corridor in central Louisiana.
The I-49 South corridor along US90 in Lafayette will be expanded from four to six lanes from Pinhook to Broussard.
Another segment of I-49 North near Shreveport will be completed from LA173 to LA169.
Segments of the El Camino East-West Corridor in north Louisiana will be four-laned.
In addition, $57 million will be allocated to the Cyber Innovation Center at Barksdale Air Force Base to improve access via Interstate 220 and make the site more attractive to Cyber Command—a project that will retain several thousand jobs, and attract several thousand more, and position northwest Louisiana as a center for high tech and professional jobs.
Hurricane Protection and Coastal Restoration: $300 Million (This is the largest financial commitment to hurricane protection and coastal restoration in the state's history.)
·With this allocation, Louisiana will fund projects in southeast and southwest Louisiana, making a critical contribution toward the state’s match to federal dollars.
Unfunded Accrued Liability (UAL): $60 Million
These funds are directed to the ever-growing $9.6 billion cost of retirement benefits for teachers and state workers. Louisiana will save $4.28 in interest for every dollar of this payment.
Deferred Maintenance for Higher Education: $75 Million
An independent state facility condition assessment identified $1.8b in deferred maintenance needs of higher education in Louisiana. The Division of Administration’s Office of Facility Planning and Control is committed to working with the Board of Regents to prioritize these projects.
Pennington Biomedical ResearchCenter: $50 Million
This $50M capital investment, Pennington will:
Complete a new clinical research building and renovate existing facilities
Create a new imaging center
Purchase high-tech research instrumentation and equipment
Recruit star faculty members.
Specifically, Pennington projects this $50m investment will yield over 1,100 new direct and indirect jobs; result in new earnings of over $40m annually; and have an economic impact of over $110m each year—not to mention securing hundreds of millions in new federal research grants and acting as a catalyst for new private-sector development.
Additional Initiatives Adopted in the Special Session:
SB11 Dedicates Transportation-related Taxes and Fees to Transportation Projects.
·Accelerates the current phase-in for revenues from vehicle license fees for trucks and trailers. This will increase transportation revenues in FY09 by an additional $11 million and fully dedicate these fees altogether by FY10, a year ahead of schedule.
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·For the first time, begin the phase-in of the dedication of vehicle sale taxes to transportation projects. This will provide an immediate infusion of an additional $30 million in transportation in FY09 and over $250 million per year within five years. With our increasing transportation project backlog, the current level of funding cannot solely by relied upon to solve our needs.
HB18 Protects Federal Tax Credits from State Taxes
·About 1.9 million Louisiana residents will qualify for federal rebate checks under an economic stimulus package that was signed into law by the President last month. The Treasury Department estimates that state residents can expect checks totaling about $1.6 billion, with some being mailed as early as May.
·Under the program, individuals are eligible for up to $600, and couples can get as much as $1,200. People with at least $3,000 in earned income, or those with at least $3,000 from any combination of Social Security, Railroad Retirement funds, and Social Security disability or veterans' benefits, would get $300 per individual or $600 per couple.
·These funds are intended to stimulate consumer spending and investment, and Louisiana will do its share to maximize the value of the rebate by not treating the checks as taxable income.
HB45 Provides for the FederalCity Project: Algiers Development District
·The Algiers Development District was created as a special taxing district comprised of all territory within the fifteenth ward of Orleans Parish by Act No. 242 of the 1992 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature.
·The original legislation required certain actions be taken with ten years of the creation date of the district. It is unclear that these actions were taken so the district may have lapsed. This will require corrective legislation.
·The project is estimated to retain 1,963 jobs and an additional phase 1 could possibly create new jobs of up to 1,400. Total direct jobs could reach over 6,000.
SB7 Provides for the NewspaperPublisher & RadioState Sales Tax Exclusion
·Last year’s changes to state tax law (Act 339 of the 2007 Regular Session) included certain machinery and equipment used primarily to produce news publications within the state sales and use tax exclusion for manufacturing machinery and equipment (MM&E).
·Due to a drafting error, the Department of Revenue is currently unable to ensure that news publishers would be entitled to exclusion from the tax.
·Making necessary technical corrections in the special session would not yield an additional cost to the MM&E provisions since the fiscal note already accounts for the tax exclusion for machinery and equipment used to produce news publications.
