BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) 鈥� Louisiana鈥檚 GOP-dominated legislature passed tax cuts on personal and corporate income on Friday in exchange for a statewide sales tax increase, a mixed bag of success for Gov. Jeff Landry, whose original tax revision plans faced from lawmakers and lobbyists amid .
The final passage of the bulk of Landry's proposed measures winds down a special legislative session called Nov. 6 by the governor and his allies. They said their purpose was to make the state鈥檚 tax code more business friendly, bring jobs and reverse trends of outward migration from the state. It was the called by Landry, a Republican, since he assumed office in January.
The package of legislation includes a permanent $2,000 raise for teachers and doubles standard deductions for residents aged 65 and older. It raises the state sales tax to 5%, while granting Landry鈥檚 wish for lower personal and corporate income tax rates. It repeals the 0.275% corporate franchise tax, a levy on businesses operating on the state worth more than $500 million in annual revenue.
The state's new corporate income tax rate will be a flat 5.5%, reducing the highest tier from 7.5%. Landry had wanted a 3.5% flat rate.
Lawmakers approved a flat 3% individual income tax rate and nearly tripled the standard deduction for individuals. Previously, the personal income tax rate had stood at 4.25% for individuals earning $50,000 or more.
鈥淲hat I鈥檓 very confident in is that everyone鈥檚 going to have more money in their pocket at the end of the day with the personal income tax reductions,鈥� said Republican Rep. Julie Emerson, who spearheaded legislation to flatten the income tax rate.
With the personal income tax reductions reducing annual revenue by $1.3 billion, Landry鈥檚 original plan had called for applying sales taxes to dozens of services like car-washing, dog-grooming and lobbying. He also sought to eliminate large tax incentives for the restoration of historic buildings and the film industry.
Those proposals were defeated, leading to a bigger sales tax hike than Landry initially proposed.
Louisiana already had the highest combined state and average local sales tax in the country at 9.56%, according to the Tax Foundation, a think tank favored by conservatives.
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Associated Press writer Kevin McGill contributed to this report.
Jack Brook, The Associated Press
