Legislators pass bill that would extend one-third of an expiring sales tax

One hurdle was cleared during the latest special session of the Louisiana Legislature, but the feat might have started a chain reaction that could necessitate a third special session this year. Each special session is at a cost of $60 thousand a day to the state’s taxpayers.
During the Memorial Day holiday Monday, state legislators passed House Bill 27 that would extend one-third of an expiring sales tax and raise an estimated $370 million. A similar measure was defeated during the latest special session and also defeated last week.
“It’s a compromise, and that’s what we’re looking for,” said House GOP Caucus Chair Lance Harris, who, according to The Advocate, authored the bill to extend part of the sales tax increase through 2023.
The passage of the bill was seen as a compromise by members of both parties, but, after praise was extended to the opposite party, heated debate then followed over a spending package for the state’s fiscal year that begins July 1.
“We have no budget bill that has been moved at this point in the process,” House Speaker Pro Tempore Walt Leger, a New Orleans Democrat who, according to The Advocate, has authored a substitute budget bill as no other has been filed. “The time is now and building on the momentum we have. We need to do it, and we need to do it now.”
The Advocate reported, “The chamber set off on a procedure-driven debate over constitutional provisions and committee schedules that ultimately ended with House Republican leaders setting out on a rare attempt at overriding Governor John Bel Edwards’ veto of the budget bill that was passed during the regular session. The attempt was rejected in a 52-48 vote. It needed 70 to pass and then would have faced another huge hurdle in the Senate. Ten Republican House members joined all voting Democrats and two of the chamber’s three members who do not belong to a political party in voting against the proposal to override the Democratic governor.”
With the June 4 deadline looming for this special session, the House Appropriations Committee took up Leger’s bill this week.
The sales tax bill is now slated to wind its way through the Senate for final passage. Other legislation on the same course, according to The Advocate, are “House Bill 18, which would generate about $33.6 million by extending the suspension of some tax breaks linked to income taxes that people pay to other states. The tax credit has been on hold in Louisiana since 2015; under HB18, it would not go back on the books until 2023.”