If Louisianans are tired of finishing near the bottom of every rating of civic health, they should buy into major reforms.

In proposals within the last week, state Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson and the Pelican Institute think tank make good sense when pushing for a flatter, simpler, more growth-oriented tax system in Louisiana. Still, a little caution is in order.

On personal income taxes, Nelson proposes a flat rate of 3.8% on all income over $12,500. Pelican, in a paper to be released Monday, will propose a 3.5% rate. Nelson estimates the state would lose $500 million a year in revenue as a result of the reduced rates in his plan, but would make up for it largely by eliminating numerous targeted tax breaks and extending the sales tax to previously untaxed services. Pelican’s plan, on paper, would reduce revenues even more.

Both assume, though — Pelican more abundantly — that another large portion of the revenue loss on paper would be recouped through far more dynamic economic growth.

Pelican’s “fiscal reform” plan is comprehensive, calling for flattening not just personal income tax rates but also corporate income tax rates, along with eliminating the corporate franchise tax and the inventory tax. Noting that state spending has grown at twice the inflation rate for nearly a decade, Pelican also proposes an expenditure limit that would block state spending from rising faster each year than the inflation rate plus population growth.

Much more boldly, Pelican says both corporate and personal income taxes in Louisiana should be phased out, slowly but entirely. The think tank lays out an arithmetically cogent process for doing so.

To which, some observations are in order.

First, Pelican is right in noting that the dizzying complexity of Louisiana’s tax system, along with its imposition of outmoded, inefficient franchise and inventory taxes, “hampers entrepreneurship and family prosperity.” Louisiana increasingly is an outlier with its multi-tiered, multi-exemption system that causes compliance problems while retarding growth. For example, writes Pelican, “There are 99 exemptions, deductions, and credits for personal income taxes.” This system disfavors those with lower incomes who can’t afford accountants to take advantage of all these specialized provisions.

Second, both Nelson and Pelican rightly point out that a simpler system with lower rates will spur economic growth. Other states repeatedly prove it. It is a travesty that, as almost every other Sun Belt state boasts growing populations and economies, Louisiana is losing people and ranks near the bottom on almost every economic index. By comparison, as Pelican CEO Daniel Erspamer wrote in these pages on Sept. 27, “states with a flat or zero tax rate comprise 13 of the top 15 states in U.S. News and World Report’s ranking of the country’s best economies.”

Now, though, consider caveats.

First, as both Nelson and Pelican note — but as neither has fully detailed in their new plans — systemic spending reform also is necessary. While the dynamic “growth” effects of flatter taxes surely will replenish some of the “lost” revenue from lower rates, and while the elimination of special-interest exemptions will make up most of the rest, spending reform remains necessary to avoid so-called “fiscal cliffs.”

To that end, the Legislature should significantly tighten its system of mid-year “supplemental appropriations” in which it redirects several hundred million dollars each year from deliberately overstuffed original accounts into legislator’s pet projects, with less de facto oversight than in the regular budget process. Lawmakers should rein in the waste from this supplemental hocus pocus.

The second caveat is an eggs-in-one-basket warning. Pelican goes too far, even if its numbers technically balance, when it recommends a steady but eventually complete phaseout of both corporate and personal income taxes along with elimination of the franchise and inventory taxes. Those taxes together account for 38% of all state revenues plus a chunk of local revenues. This would leave the sales tax, already 27% of state revenues, to shoulder a much larger load for state government. This is unwise.

Every economist knows sales taxes are by their nature regressive, meaning they take a higher percentage of the income of low-wage workers than of wealthier people. Basic fairness suffers if there’s too large a reliance on sales taxes.

Second, while the revenue from almost every tax rises and falls with the strength of the economy, sales tax receipts are particularly — and quickly — susceptible to sharp drops during recessions. For revenue stability to protect crucial government services, it makes far more sense to have several major revenue sources. That’s why it may make sense eventually to phase out either the corporate income tax or the personal income tax — but not both.

With those caveats, Pelican and Nelson are pushing in the right direction. To jump-start Louisiana’s economy, lawmakers should pursue these reformers’ central recommendations enthusiastically.

Sleep is a basic human need and critical to both physical and mental health, yet almost half of Louisiana residents report not getting enough of it.

According to America’s Health Rankings, an annual report by the United Health Foundation, 39.8% of Louisiana residents reported sleeping fewer than seven hours in a 24-hour period, the minimum recommended amount for maintaining one’s physical health.

While a significant percentage of Americans struggle with sleep disorders, Louisiana’s percentage is far above the national average. Much of that can be attributed to the kind of jobs most prevalent in Louisiana, according to Dr. Phillip Conner, whose sleep disorder clinic opened its new Lafayette location this week.

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About 250,000 workers are currently employed in the energy sector, according to recent state estimates. 

Long, irregular hours spent working in the oil field, on offshore rigs or casino floors don’t lend themselves to developing healthy, consistent sleep patterns.

“The guys – and ladies — that work offshore, work in the industry, they have to constantly shift their circadian rhythms back and forth, and it’s very difficult for them to stay on a normal pattern,” Conner said. “And it has impacts in terms of sleep and long-term health.”

Conner’s clinic, the Sleep Disorder Center of Louisiana, has maintained a location in Lake Charles for 25 years. With local casinos and the oil and gas industry as major employers, southwest Louisiana’s shift workers are prone to bad or insufficient sleep. Looking at the local demographics in southcentral Louisiana, Conner and his team concluded the same would likely be true for this region.

“We saw the population footprint from here down to Morgan City, and we recognized that there’s an enormous health burden related to sleep related disorders,” Conner said.

Shift worker syndrome, as sleep disorder associated with irregular work hours is referred to clinically, isn’t the only cause of bad sleep prevalent in South Louisiana, however.

According to Conner, a vast majority of the center’s patients suffer from sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea, which can be caused by a variety of factors including exposure to pollution, smoking, and excess weight or drinking, is also a common health concern. The disorder, in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep, can have serious long-term health consequences such as high blood pressure and heart problems, diabetes and liver disease.

Insomnia, one of the most common sleep disorders, is prevalent in South Louisiana as well. While Conner said sleep apnea affects more of his male than female patients, the opposite is true for insomnia.

At the sleep center, staff diagnose and treat these common sleep disorders in various ways. Where necessary, a sleep study is performed to diagnose the condition. For that, patients spend the night in one of two rooms at the center set up for that purpose, each featuring a queen-size bed with a plush mattress and ample pillows and blankets.

Throughout the night the patient’s oxygen levels, heart rate, breathing patterns, muscular activity and other indicators are measured to form a diagnosis and design a treatment plan.

For now, Conner will be splitting his time between the Lake Charles and Lafayette centers, along with a monthly pop-up in DeRidder, where he serves local residents and service members from the nearby Fort Johnson, formerly Fort Polk, army base. Sleep disorders are common among veterans, Conner noted, with an estimated 15% of the center’s patients having served in the military.

The center works with the Veterans Administration and accepts TRICARE benefits, the health insurance program for active duty military personnel, along with private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid.

“We want to be a full-service provider,” Conner said.

Conner advised anyone experiencing chronic fatigue or feeling like they aren’t able to perform their job or daily tasks at full capacity to consider taking a closer look at their sleep patterns.

“Probably the biggest indicator is how you’re feeling in the daytime,” he said. “If you feel like you’re working under your maximum, you feel like you’re not really getting the most out of your career, and you’re waking up tired and you need a nap when you get home from work, those are oftentimes red flags.”

The center’s Lafayette location officially opened its doors this week and is accepting new patients.