Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns points to himself as being the only one to blame for his prior erroneous reporting entailing our grossly overstated benefit of Gov. Landry’s tax plan to lower-income taxpayers.
In today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature, founder Robert Burns does a huge mea culpa for his erroneous reporting on the magnitude of the favorable impact of Gov. Landry’s tax package on lower-income taxpayers and places the blame for that erroneous reporting squarely where it belongs: on himself. Here’s the feature:
Let us now present two tables demonstrating the impacts of the tax plan on two sets of taxpayers: #1) a single taxpayer earning $35,000 a year (which is the example we used throughout prior features), and #2) a married couple earning $70,000 a year:
Single Taxpayer with Income of $35,000 / year.
Component of Tax Computation
Louisiana Income Taxes for SINGLE Taxpayer in 2024 BEFORE Enactment of Landry Tax Reform Plan.
Louisiana Income Taxes for SINGLE Taxpayer in 2025 AFTER Enactment of Landry Tax Reform Plan.
Taxable Income B-4 SD
$35,000
$35,000
Less: Standard Deduction
<$4,500>
<$12,500>
Taxable Income After SD
$30,500
$22,500
Taxes
($30,500 - $12,500) x 0.035 + $12,500 x 0.0185 = $861.25.
$22,500 x 0.03= $675. (For a net income tax cut of $186.25. The amount of spending required to wipe out that tax savings based on the 0.55% boost in the sales tax = $186.25 / 0.0055 = $33,863.64.
Married Taxpayers Filing Jointly with Income of $70,000 / year.
Component of Tax Computation
Louisiana Income Taxes for MARRIED Taxpayers (filing jointly) in 2024 BEFORE Enactment of Landry Tax Reform Plan.
Louisiana Income Taxes for MARRIED Taxpayers (filing jointly) in 2025 AFTER Enactment of Landry Tax Reform Plan.
Taxable Income B-4 SD
$70,000
$70,000
Less: Standard Deduction
<$9,000>
<$25,000>
Taxable Income After SD
$61,000
$45,000
Taxes
($61,000 - $25,000) x 0.035 + $25,000 x 0.0185 = $1,722.50.
$45,000 x 0.03= $1,350. (For a net income tax cut of $372.50. The amount of spending required to wipe out that tax savings based on the 0.55% boost in the sales tax = $372.50 / 0.0055 = $67,727.27.
We hope everyone enjoyed a Happy Thanksgiving, and we apologize for the inaccurate prior reporting entailing what is now known to be a hugely exaggerated favorable impact we attributed as being applicable for lower-income taxpayers.
Former Louisiana State Rep. Woody Jenkins (photo courtesy of Greg LaRose / Louisiana Illuminator).
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ADDENDUM (11/29/24 @ 5:28 p.m.).
Regrettably the computations in this feature are erroneous. Please refer to this mea culpa feature for much more accurate computations.
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East Baton Rouge Parish (BBRP) Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome was the lone speaker at the Baton Rouge Press Club (BRPC) Mayoral forum held today (Monday, November 25, 2024). Her Republican opponent, legendary high school football coach Sid Edwards, was again a no-show.
BRPC Member Jim Engster posed a question of Broome entailing her thoughts on the role of former Louisiana State Rep. Woody Jenkins in the Edwards campaign. Here’s Broome’s response:
11/26/24: Broome responds to Engster’s question on the role of Jenkins in Edwards’ campaign.
Right now, we have our own totally separate issue with Jenkins!
When we first suggested the “clean penny” to Gov. Landry and his team, we jokingly stated that, unlike Michael Lunsford, Executive Director of Citizens for a New Louisiana, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns wasn’t personally called by Gov. Landry for a little pow-wow after any feature Burns had published. We further jokingly said that, as a big advocate of Landry’s tax reform package, perhaps Burns didn’t need any, “remedial training.” Anyone can see from the 7:16 – 7:54 segment of this video exactly what Burns stated.
Our joking commentary on “remedial training” arose from a feature Lunsford published absolutely lambasting Landry’s plan up one side and down the other. Well, Jenkins’ newest publication, St. George Leader, on Wednesday, November 14, 2024, opted to republish Lunsford’s feature. Here’s the headline from the feature:
Gov. Jeff Landry Calls Legislative Session To Raise $12+ Billion in New State Taxes
This published feature is the epitome of the type falsehoods we referenced in yesterday’s (November 24, 2024) feature in which we outlined in extensive detail just how Landry’s plan is a huge win for lower-income Louisiana residents.
Landry then arranged for Lunsford to receive a special briefing on it, Lunsford said in a mass email Thursday, without saying whether he now thought differently about the plan.
John Kay, Landry’s policy director, on Friday called veteran arch-conservative Woody Jenkins, who published an article Thursday in his monthly newspaper, the St. George Leader, that said the tax plan would raise $12 billion in new tax revenue for state and local government over five years.
Landry’s Revenue Department has said the plan would actually reduce state taxes by at least $700 million per year.
Kay, Jenkins said, “called to tell me to stop lying about the governor’s plan. The call did not end well. We’re seeing a lot of strong-arm tactics.”
We need to correct one thing about yesterday’s Sound Off Louisiana feature: Even WE shortchanged Gov. Landry’s tax cut to a $35,000 a year Louisiana taxpayer by $50. We caught the omission late yesterday evening after publication.
What did we do? We failed to also include the reduction of the 3.50% rate to 3.00% for that segment of the taxpayer’s income which exceeded the lowest tax bracket (which is being eliminated) and the added $8,000 standard deduction. Let us provide revised computations with the additional tax cut (that we inadvertently left out) highlighted in bold:
1. Tax savings from elimination of lowest income tax bracket: $12,500 x 0.0185 = $231.25.
2. Tax savings from increasing Standard Deduction from $4,500 to $12,500: $8,000 x 0.035 = $280.
3. Tax savings from 3.5% bracket being reduced to 3%: [($35,000 – $12,500 – $12,500) x 0.005] = $50.00.
4. Amount of spending taxpayer would have to do in paying added sales taxes for the income tax savings to be wiped out: $561.25 / 0.0055 = $102,045.45.
Another way to confirm our above calculations follows:
Taxpayer’s tax liability for 2024 prior to Landry’s plan: [(35,000 – 4,500 – 12,500) x 0.035 + 12,500 x 0.0185] = $861.25.
Taxpayer’s tax liability for 2025 AFTER Jeff Landry’s plan: [(35,000 – 12,500 – 12,500) x 0.03] = $300.
The savings? $561.25, or a whopping 65.17% of the taxpayer’s total tax liability was CUT by Gov. Jeff Landry’s plan.
Whether families that earn less than $40,000 per year will receive a net tax reduction was not clear Friday, given the sales tax increase.
About all we can say to Mr. Bridges is that we feel compelled to invoke a favorite phrase of his hero, former Gov. John Bel Edwards: “Tyler, we can explain it to you (and did above), but we can’t understand it for you.”
Entailing Broome’s assessment of words coming out of Jenkins’ mouth, we too find some of those words to be “extremely concerning” and we’ve explained precisely why above.
Our offer stands for Jenkins, Lunsford, and even Bridges for that matter, to appear on our camera and refute the notion, as evidenced by the above calculations, that Gov. Landry’s tax plan did in fact result in a huge windfall to Louisiana lower-income individuals and families.
The final kicker? Gov. Landry and his team were even smart enough to index the Standard Deduction going forward for inflation. Ronald Reagan, who was first to take that action to eliminate “bracket creep,” is no doubt smiling down upon Gov. Landry right now!
CLICK HERE for Mayor-President Broome’s presentation in its entirety.
Louisiana State Sen. Blake Miguez, during Senate consideration of Gov. Landry’s tax reform package on Friday, November 22, 2024, makes absolutely certain that, in the finalized tax reform package, none of the original 40+ activities outlined at the outset of the tax reform package would entail folk who have never had to collect sales taxes suddenly having to do so.
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ADDENDUM (11/29/24 @ 5:28 p.m.).
Regrettably the computations in this feature are erroneous. Please refer to this mea culpa feature for much more accurate computations.
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In today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature, founder Robert Burns demonstrates that, notwithstanding mainstream media coverage (along with coverage by other platforms), Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry’s tax reform package entailed massive tax relief for lower-income Louisiana citizens and was most certainly not reform tilted exclusively to higher-income Louisiana residents. Here’s the video authoritatively demonstrating that fact:
11/24/24: Video demonstrating exactly how Gov. Landry’s tax reform package is a huge win for lower-income Louisiana taxpayers.
As mentioned on the video (and as seen in text displays on the video), here are the computations demonstrating the tax savings for a single taxpayer with $35,000 in income in Louisiana:
1. Tax savings from elimination of lowest income tax bracket: $12,500 x 0.0185 = $231.25.
2. Tax savings from increasing Standard Deduction from $4,500 to $12,000: $8,000 x 0.035 = $280.
4. Amount of spending taxpayer would have to do in paying added sales taxes for the income tax savings to be wiped out: $511.25 / 0.0055 = $92,954.55.
Obviously, common sense dictates that someone making $35,000 a year cannot spend $92,954.55 and, as Burns stated, what makes the whole plan work is taught in college economics classes, and what that entails is the velocity of money.
As indicated in the video above, if anyone is so inclined, our camera is readily available for anyone who may wish to refute Burns’ assessment of Landry et. al.’s tax package, but just be prepared to demonstrate via numbers as Burns did and not do as so many media outlets did during the duration of coverage of Landry’s plan and present nothing more than emotion or, in at least a couple of reports we saw, nothing short of made up numbers!
Lastly, as demonstrated in the video above, Sen. Blake Miguez sought to make absolutely certain that everyone (most especially folk in his Senate District) is aware that none (zero, zilch, nada) of the 40+ activities specified in HB-9 are in the current legislation which just passed that would have required folk who’ve never had to collect sales taxes in the past to commence doing so. Here’s that video (which is also incorporated into the video above):
11/22/24: Sen. Migeuz goes out of his way to make sure folk back home in his Senate District know that none of the activities originally listed in HB-9 (40+ activities originally) are in the final package passed and thus nobody who wasn’t already collecting sales taxes would have to start doing so.
Finally, as indicated in the initial video above, here is our updated table of Gov. Landry et. al..’s tax package (Note: HB-9 is now gone, and the original HB-1 was fully merged into HB-10):
Legislation (as broadly amended)
Total Estimated 5-Year Fiscal Impact and Votes [numbers in parenthesis ( ) represent negative impacts on Louisiana's finances and numbers not in parenthesis represent positive impacts on Louisiana fiscal affairs, i.e. typically more tax revenue.]
HB-2. Lowers corporate tax rate from 7.5% to 5.5%.
($29 million). [VERY heavily front-end loaded due to exemptions which can still be claimed for a couple more years but which will expire in later years, at which time significant positive cash flow impacts are expected (see yearly breakdown on linked fiscal note above). That fact cannot be sufficiently stressed due to its importance in offsetting lost revenue from eliminating Corporate Franchise Tax (see next bill)]. Votes.
HB-4. Appropriates supplemental funding for Fiscal Year 2024-2025. Provides for net increases out of Statutory Dedications by $3,481,010. This is the cost of March 29, 2025 special election for Constitutional Amendment.
HB-6. Calls for Special Election on March 29, 2025 for Constitutional Amendment.
($3 million) Cost to conduct March 29, 2025 special election for Constitutional Amendment. Votes.
HB-7 Constitutional amendment to be voted upon by voters on 3/29/25 which covers considerable ground, but the main features are the $2,000/year teacher pay raise and providing an added Standard Deduction for Louisiana Taxpayers who are 65+, upping that Deduction to $25,000.
(In the range of $850 million). Vast majority comes from Statutory Dedications, so no meaningful impact on state general fund operations. Votes.
HB-8. Levies a tax on certain digital services (Netflix, etc.)
HB-10. [Fully absorbs former HB-1]. As per our suggestion of 11/16/24, extends "clean penny" sales tax [for five (5) years]. Also compresses three personal income tax brackets into one 3% bracket and ELIMINATES THE LOWEST TAX BRACKET FOR ALL TAXPAYERS IN THE PROCESS. Further, increases the Standard Deduction from $4,500 to $12,500.
