“Mr. Jindal’s first term began in 2008 with a heady surplus of around $1 billion, high oil prices and a stream of federal disaster recovery money after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. He threw his support behind the largest tax cut in the state’s history”
Fast forward 7 years:
“Louisiana’s budget shortfall is projected to reach $1.6 billion next year and to remain in that ballpark for a while.”
Mr. Jindal defended his record, attributing “the vast majority” of the shortfall to the downturn in oil prices and insisting that a shrunken state government was the goal, not an unfortunate side effect.
…
Trust funds for infrastructure and low-income older adults have been sapped, buildings sold, tax amnesties repeatedly declared, legal settlements spent and reserves drained.
…
Mr. Jindal is firmly against any changes that would result in net new revenue. Last year he even vetoed a bill that would have required the state to tally up the costs of those tax credits and rebates on the grounds that it could “create uncertainty about the state’s commitment to job creation and economic development.”
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This has been a textbook example of “Starve the Beast” — cut taxes & distribute massive corp. tax credits (in this case credits exceeded total corp. tax revenue statewide by hundreds of millions of $$s annually), and if anyone questions your fuzzy math just assure them that tax cuts will actually grow gov’t revenue due to economic growth (AKA “laffer curve” BS). When the structural deficit inevitably arrives, use it as justification to sell off assets, slash-and-burn programs, loot trusts and privatize.
And when you get called out just say “it’s a feature not a bug”
Hopefully the leg. can stabilize and make long-term fixes needed to move the state in the right direction, do the right thing and not fiddle for the base b/c of making a play for the WH.
“Mr. Jindal’s first term began in 2008 with a heady surplus of around $1 billion, high oil prices and a stream of federal disaster recovery money after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. He threw his support behind the largest tax cut in the state’s history”
Fast forward 7 years:
“Louisiana’s budget shortfall is projected to reach $1.6 billion next year and to remain in that ballpark for a while.”
Mr. Jindal defended his record, attributing “the vast majority” of the shortfall to the downturn in oil prices and insisting that a shrunken state government was the goal, not an unfortunate side effect.
…
Trust funds for infrastructure and low-income older adults have been sapped, buildings sold, tax amnesties repeatedly declared, legal settlements spent and reserves drained.
…
Mr. Jindal is firmly against any changes that would result in net new revenue. Last year he even vetoed a bill that would have required the state to tally up the costs of those tax credits and rebates on the grounds that it could “create uncertainty about the state’s commitment to job creation and economic development.”
—–
This has been a textbook example of “Starve the Beast” — cut taxes & distribute massive corp. tax credits (in this case credits exceeded total corp. tax revenue statewide by hundreds of millions of $$s annually), and if anyone questions your fuzzy math just assure them that tax cuts will actually grow gov’t revenue due to economic growth (AKA “laffer curve” BS). When the structural deficit inevitably arrives, use it as justification to sell off assets, slash-and-burn programs, loot trusts and privatize.
And when you get called out just say “it’s a feature not a bug”
Hopefully the leg. can stabilize and make long-term fixes needed to move the state in the right direction, do the right thing and not fiddle for the base b/c of making a play for the WH.