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Louisiana senators want more details on Landry tax plan before proposed special session

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Louisiana senators want more details on Landry tax plan before proposed special session


Louisiana Revneue Secretary Richard Nelson wants to lower income tax rates for many Louisiana households, but expand the sales tax rate. (Photo by Henrietta Wildsmith)

Louisiana legislators, particularly those in the Senate, want more information about Gov. Jeff Landry’s plan to overhaul the state’s tax system before they commit to a special legislative session in November to pass new tax laws. 

Landry’s Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson has pitched a session focused on tax changes to be held between the Nov. 5 presidential election and Thanksgiving on Nov. 28. 

“We would like to see a special session between now and the end of the year,” Nelson said during a presentation to lawmakers last week.

The Landry tax overhaul proposal revolves around a central concept of eliminating existing tax exemptions and expanding the state sales tax to new services in exchange for lowering the personal income tax rate for moderate-income and wealthy households. 

But Nelson hasn’t provided details about which tax exemptions he wants to scrap or what new services would be subject to sales taxes under his proposal. He’s also been vague about what personal income tax rate he wants legislators to set. 

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Nelson told lawmakers during a budget hearing last week he would like to see a personal income tax rate in Louisiana in the low 3% range. “It’s going to be dependent on the other measures that we have to make up revenue,” he said.

“Taxes on services. Taxes on digital goods. Depending on how expansive those are, how many exemptions we are able to take out of the sales tax budget, those are the things that will drive how low we can get the [personal income tax] rate,” Nelson added. 

It’s unclear if Nelson’s tax proposal would happen on top of or instead of an across-the-board 0.45% state sales tax rate cut scheduled to take place July 1, 2025. He didn’t address the issue during last week’s presentation. 

Senators interviewed Monday said they want those details of the tax package well ahead of having to take any votes on the plan. 

“I highly support making the change we need to make to make us competitive with our surrounding states,” Sen. Robert Allain, R-Franklin, said, but “we need time to deliberate.”

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Some senators are still skeptical that a tax package can be approved within the next two months when the specifics of the proposal haven’t been nailed down yet. They believe it would be better handled during the regular lawmaking session scheduled to start in April. 

“No matter when we address tax policy, it’s going to be helpful for members to have as much information as possible,” Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said.

The head of the Senate’s tax committee, Franklin Foil, R-Baton Rouge, told Nelson at the hearing last week that legislators will need more information in order for a November special session to be successful.

“Are you going to come back with some specific things you would like to recommend to the governor to be in [special tax session] the call?” Foil asked Nelson. 

Nelson responded that he would finalize his proposal by the end of next week after talking more with the governor and legislators. 

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“The governor is very adamant that he wants to do something big. He wants to make big changes,” Nelson said.

If Louisiana’s personal income tax rate was in the low 3% range for all households, as Nelson wishes, it would create an income tax break for all but the lowest-income people. Currently, households pay a 4.25% tax rate on income $50,000 and above, 3.5% on income between $12,500 and $50,000, and 1.85% rate on income $12,500 and below.

Nelson has proposed offsetting the tax increase on Louisiana’s lowest-income households by significantly increasing the standard deduction they would be able to claim on their state tax forms.

The revenue secretary said he also wants to lower the corporate income tax rate, revise the business inventory tax and eliminate the corporate franchise tax. 

Louisiana would not see a massive drop off in revenue by lowering these tax rates, Nelson said, as long as the state eliminates some existing tax exemptions and assesses its sales tax in new areas to make for the lost revenue. 

In the past, he has suggested taxing Netflix and other digital streaming services as well as luxury services such as car detailing. Nelson has not said how much money such an expanded tax base could produce. 

Eliminating tax exemptions, especially those that benefit corporate interests, has proven difficult in the past. The Legislature failed to approve widespread changes to its business tax breaks in 2016 and 2018.

“I think you have a lot of special interests out there that want to protect their pocketbooks,” said Sen. Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, who said he would back a November special session on taxes.

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The Landry administration is also proposing combining two state savings accounts, which would reduce the amount of state funding that flows into reserve funds. It would free up more money for day-to-day government functions without raising taxes. 

The merging of the state’s savings accounts would require voters to approve a constitutional amendment, which Nelson would like to put on the ballot during a special statewide election in March. 

If the Legislature chose to do nothing, state residents would still see a tax cut next year as well as a state budget deficit of $587 million that would like result in cuts to health care, higher education and K-12 school services. 

The financial shortfall would largely be driven by that scheduled 0.45% cut to the state sales rate, which would cost $455 million, and the elimination of a 2% sales tax on business utilities, which would cost $211 million. 



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Louisiana

Lana Del Rey Marries Jeremy Dufrene in Louisiana Wedding

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Lana Del Rey Marries Jeremy Dufrene in Louisiana Wedding



Lana Del Rey.
Photo by Kristy Sparow/Getty Images)

Lana Del Rey and Jeremy Dufrene are reportedly married!

The “Born To Die” singer, 39, and the alligator tour guide tied the knot in Louisiana, on Thursday, September 26, according to photos and videos published by DailyMail.com.

Del Rey wore a floor-length white wedding gown for her nuptials, which took place by the water in Des Allemandes – the same bayou Dufrene uses to host his popular tours, per the outlet.

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The Grammy nominee’s father, Robert Grant, reportedly walked Del Rey down the aisle to where Dufrene, dressed in a black suit, white dress shirt and leather shoes was awaiting his bride.

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Del Rey’s mother Patricia Ann Hill, 68, her sister Caroline Grant and brother Charlie Hill-Grant all attended the couple’s wedding, reported the outlet.

According to Dailymail.com, following the nuptials, the newly wedded couple and guests reportedly celebrated the reception along the public harbor – near where the exchanging of vows took place.

The news comes just hours after it was confirmed that Del Rey and Dufrene had obtained a marriage license in Louisiana’s Lafourche Parish Clerk of Court on Monday, September 23, according to court records obtained by Us Weekly.

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While they were first linked late last month, Del Rey has uploaded pictures of herself with Dufrene on Facebook dating back to 2019 when she first went on one of his wildlife tours.

Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey.
(Photo by Katja Ogrin/Redferns/Getty Images for ABA)

 

Del Rey and Dufrene made their public debut earlier this month when the alligator tour guide accompanied Del Rey to Karen Elson’s wedding at New York City’s Electric Lady Studios. (Elson, 45, married Lee Foster, who owns the recording studio.)

The “Summertime Sadness” singer has previously been linked to Barrie-James O’Neill, Francesco Carrozzini, G-Eazy, Sean Larkin and Clayton Johnson. While speaking with Rolling Stone in 2014, she revealed that she thrives in intense relationships.

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“It’s been beautiful, but it’s been confusing because when that’s your prerogative, things don’t end in a traditional way,” Del Rey told the outlet in July 2014. “You don’t have that traditional relationship where maybe you go out with couples at night, or you do normal things. It’s more of an extension of the creative process.””

In the profile, Del Rey confirmed that she was “really looking for an equal” and wasn’t afraid of an age-gap romance.

“I sort of have an affinity for really good, strong, self-assured people,” she said. “I would say I haven’t met them as much in people who are in their 20s. So for me, I have nothing in common necessarily with somebody who’s in their 20s — yet. That I know of, thus far.”

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Louisiana prosecutors drop most serious charge in deadly arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene | CNN

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Louisiana prosecutors drop most serious charge in deadly arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene | CNN




AP
 — 

Louisiana prosecutors on Thursday dismissed the most serious remaining charge in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, dropping a negligent homicide count against a veteran trooper seen on body-camera video dragging the Black motorist by his ankle shackles and forcing him to lie face down before he stopped breathing.

The move coming just a month before Kory York’s trial marks only the latest withering of a case that began in 2022 with five officers indicted on a range of charges over the stunning, punching and pepper-spraying of Greene following a high-speed chase.

Now, only two still face charges, multiple felony malfeasance counts against York and another officer, all but eliminating the chance that anyone will face significant prison time in a death troopers initially blamed on a car crash.

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“This whole thing started with a lie and a coverup and it’s going to end the same way,” a furious Mona Hardin told The Associated Press when told of the latest dropped charge in her son’s death.

“You have so much evidence yet no one wants to be the one pointing the finger against killer cops,” she said through tears. “They killed my son and no one gives a rat’s ass.”

Union Parish District Attorney John Belton said in a statement that even though the grand jury indicted York for negligent homicide, the evidence “does not meet the ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ standard necessary to secure a conviction at trial.”

Belton also dropped a malfeasance count against the recently retired York that stemmed from authorities’ still-unproven suspicion that Greene was pepper-sprayed even after he was handcuffed.

“It’s clear to me that the case should never have been indicted,” said York attorney Mike Small, adding he seeks full exoneration of his client at his October 28 trial. “I am confident that once the jury looks a those videos they’re not going to see any illegal touching of Ronald Greene by Kory York.”

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Greene’s May 2019 death sparked national outrage and was among several beatings of Black men by Louisiana troopers that prompted the US Justice Department to open an ongoing civil rights investigation into the state police.

But the latest dismissal underscores a weakness in the case that has also discouraged the Justice Department from pursuing charges: After years of investigating, federal and state authorities failed to pinpoint what, exactly, caused Greene’s death during the arrest.

State prosecutors were long skeptical the negligent homicide charge would hold up in the face of autopsy reports that cited “complications of cocaine use” among contributing factors to Greene’s death. Others included troopers’ repeated use of a stun gun, “physical struggle, prone restraint, blunt-force injury and neck compression,” but the forensic pathologist in Arkansas who examined Greene declined to identify which factor or factors were most lethal.

The case has been shrouded in secrecy from its outset when state authorities told grieving relatives the 49-year-old died in a car crash at the end of a high-speed chase near Monroe — an account questioned immediately by an emergency room doctor who noted Greene’s bruised, battered body. Still, a coroner’s report listed Greene’s cause of death as a motor vehicle accident, a state police crash report omitted any mention of troopers using any force and 462 days passed before the state police even launched an internal investigation.

All the while, officials from then-Gov. John Bel Edwards on down refused to release the body camera video of Greene’s arrest. That all changed in 2021 when AP obtained and published the long-suppressed footage showing troopers swarming Greene even as he appeared to raise his hands, plead for mercy and wail, “I’m your brother! I’m scared!”

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FILE - This photo provided by the Louisiana State Police shows Master Trooper Kory York in Monroe, La., on May 10, 2019, after troopers punched, dragged and stunned Black motorist Ronald Greene during his fatal 2019 arrest.

Troopers repeatedly jolted him with stun guns before he could even get out of the car, with one wrestling him to the ground, putting him in a chokehold and punching him in the face.

One trooper struck Greene in the head with a flashlight and was recorded bragging that he “beat the ever-living f— out of him.” That trooper, Chris Hollingsworth, was widely considered the most culpable of the half-dozen officers involved but died in a high-speed, single-vehicle crash in 2020 hours after he learned he would be fired.

York also played a prominent role in the arrest. He is seen on video pressing Greene’s body to the ground for several minutes and repeatedly ordering him to “shut up” and “lay on your f—— belly like I told you to!” Use-of-force experts say that type of prone restraint could have dangerously restricted Greene’s breathing, and the state police’s own force instructor described the troopers’ actions as “torture and murder.”

For years, Hardin has crisscrossed the country advocating for justice in her son’s death and has vowed to not even bury his ashes until she gets it.

Now she is questioning if that day will ever come.

“I hate that my son is one of countless others,” she said. “There’s a lot that could be fixed in Louisiana that will never be fixed because of choices like this.”

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Guest column: I was forced to flee Louisiana when I needed an abortion. No one else should be.

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Guest column: I was forced to flee Louisiana when I needed an abortion. No one else should be.


Baton Rouge’s Nancy Davis, center, speaks at microphones a news conference on the steps of the State Capitol, Friday, August 26, 2022, discussing the chain of events and potential legal action after a Baton Rouge hospital denied Davis, 36, an abortion for her fetus, which is developing without a skull. From left, background, are her fiance, Shedric Cole, and the well-known civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump.



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