352 pages / 6.00 x 9.00 inches / 45 figures, 42 tables, 3 maps
Business / Tax | Business / Urban and Regional | Law / Taxation
The central issue debated at each successive legislative session for over a decade, Louisiana’s significant fiscal problems have remained unresolved despite efforts to mitigate the state’s financial woes and avoid cutting key services or resorting to stop-gap solutions. Louisiana created its current tax structure in the 1970s, with some subsequent revisions in response to new economic realities. While many developments in Louisiana’s fiscal picture lie outside the state’s control, other changes including shifting tax rates, shrinking the tax base, and increasing the number of exemptions, deductions, and tax credits, resulted from decisions made by the legislative body. In Exploring Long-Term Solutions for Louisiana’s Tax System, James A. Richardson, Steven M. Sheffrin, James Alm, and other contributors advocate for establishing financial reforms geared to long-term change and more stable fiscal prospects.
With a focus on practicality and accessibility, the authors explore the complexities of Louisiana’s economic reality and explain the state’s current tax structure. In so doing, they suggest several reforms that challenge the state’s use of sales tax, application of the individual income tax, approach to corporate taxation, and allocation of other taxes such as mineral revenues. Crucial for those who want to engage with their representatives, colleagues, and fellow voters on the topic of taxation, this book equips readers with timely information about policy and, more importantly, nonpartisan solutions that could secure a more prosperous future for Louisiana.
James A. Richardson is John Rhea Alumni Professor of Economics and Director of the Public Administration Institute in the E. J. Ourso College of Business Administration at Louisiana State University. He co-edited in 1988 Louisiana Fiscal Alternatives; in 1999 Handbook on Taxation; and in 2018 Exploring Long-Term Solutions for Louisiana’s Tax System. He has served as a member of the Louisiana Revenue Estimating Conference since 1987. He has consulted with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Department of Justice. He worked with the Financial Services Roundtable regarding recovering from disasters after Hurricane Katrina.
Steven M. Sheffrin is executive director of the Murphy Institute and professor of economics at Tulane University.
James Alm is professor and chair in the Department of Economics at Tulane University.
“The prescriptions laid out in Exploring Long-Term Solutions for Louisiana’s Tax System represent a good approach to set Louisiana’s finances on a stable course for the future. This is the great value of works like this one: they describe the tax system in context at a point in time, which will be useful to future scholars and policymakers. But they also show a good template for the future and thus provide a means of gauging the success—or failure—of future policy actions.”— Billy Hamilton, executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer of The Texas A&M University System
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