Louisiana State Treasurer visits West Monroe

WEST MONROE, La. (KNOE) – Louisiana Treasurer Dr. John Fleming spoke to the West Monroe Chamber of Commerce about the successes within the Louisiana treasury department since he took office.

He is especially proud of the Louisiana treasury’s unclaimed property program.

“In June, we actually did a data match with the Louisiana Department of Revenue to look at people that are owed money. Maybe refunds were sent to them but didn’t arrive, and we found that there were 27,000 people who did not get their refunds or whatever portion of their taxes they needed back. We sent out over $5 million.”

But the treasurer says it’s not all good news. Fiscally and economically, he believes Louisiana has a lot to improve on, especially when competing with neighboring states such as Texas.

“Dot coms, high tech; there’s all kinds of opportunities for the future, because they’re leaving California, they’re leaving New York, and they’re coming to the south, but right now, they’re skipping over Louisiana because they’re saying Louisiana does not have its act together. So I want to work with our governor and our legislature to turn our economy around. Get right with that, and they will come.

One way he believes some of these issues could be fixed is with tax reform.

“I’ve been evangelizing that we need to repeal the personal income tax because states around us, like Texas, Tennessee and Florida have done that, and their their budgets are doing fantastic, and their states economically are doing fantastically well, and yet we tax our people and our businesses, and we’re not doing so well.”

The treasurer says he sees a bright future for the state of Louisiana if changes can be made.

“I do support our governor, Governor Landry, who is making a very strong effort to change that through tax reform and other measures, and I support him in that, and I’ve been doing things, of course, as a treasurer, to turn around Louisiana. So I think Louisiana, if we continue along the pathway we’re going today, will have a brighter future.”

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