INDReporter

PAR: Jindal plan $650M short of 'revenue neutral'

by Walter Pierce

A nonpartisan watchdog group says Gov. Bobby Jindal's tax code restructuring plan could cost the state as much as $650 million in lost revenue as currently proposed.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A nonpartisan watchdog group says Gov. Bobby Jindal's tax code restructuring plan could cost the state as much as $650 million in lost revenue as currently proposed.

The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana says the Jindal administration appears to fall short of making the plan "revenue neutral" as Jindal claims.

PAR says that's because the plan relies on revenue figures from 2011, when the state was struggling with the recession.

Those figures don't match current expectations of income tax revenue for the state or of what tax exemptions cost. PAR says that skews the governor's plans to not lose or gain money from the tax code revamp.

Jindal proposes doing away with state income taxes in exchange for higher state sales taxes and sales taxes charged on more items.