The candidate for Louisiana governor who is in last place in the polls has perhaps the best solution for what this state needs. Unfortunately, his program goes against many of the state government programs that legislators and voters have loved for many years.

State Rep. Richard Nelson, 37, of Mandeville is one of six Republicans who have announced for governor so far. The qualification period is coming Aug. 8-10 and others are expected to throw their hats in the ring.

The most beloved program that Nelson wants to change is the homestead exemption. Homeowners get a $75,000 property tax break annually and Nelson wants to lower that to $25,000 so local governments can receive more revenues to take over some state responsibilities.

The Advocate in a campaign story about Nelson explained the central theme of Nelson’s campaign: “… Nelson is telling voters at every stop that he wants to phase out the state income tax and bury the power dynamic created by Huey Long almost 100 years ago that centralizes power in Baton Rouge.”

The American Press on Nov. 7, 1934, reported, “King” Huey Long of the new ‘country’ of Louisiana, bubbled with enthusiasm today over the Utopia he says he is setting up in the United States.”

The homestead exemption was among 14 constitutional amendments that voters approved on Nov. 6, 1934. Long said they were all closely bound together to “shift the burden of taxation from the little man who can’t afford to pay it to the big man who can pay it, and never know a thing about it.”

In addition to lowering the homestead exemption, Nelson wants to phase out the state income tax. He would lower the individual income tax over  four years and lower the state’s corporate income  tax.

Lowering the homestead exemption would help replace those revenues by allowing local governments to begin imposing property taxes on certain nonprofit institutions and businesses that pay no property taxes now.

Nelson also wants to lower local sales taxes on groceries to lessen the tax bite on the poor. He would eliminate the inventory tax and the Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP).

A 2021 newspaper headline that said his overall tax plan contains something that everybody hates delights Nelson, The Advocate said, because that means it would produce the deep-seated changes needed by Louisiana to undo the political system wrought by Huey Long.

If he’s elected, Nelson promises he will end the dismal situation where, compared with the average of all 50 states, people in Louisiana live four years less and earn 33% less.

The late-Gov. Buddy Roemer is the best model for Nelson, the newspaper said, who was elected in 1987 when he “zoomed from last to first in the final weeks by promising a revolution.”

Roemer, however, also proposed a tax reform plan in 1989 that voters rejected and that hurt his 1991 re-election campaign. His plan initially proposed lowering the homestead exemption. He dropped the idea before the vote, but many believed it was still part of his program.

Nelson said his  goal is to make Louisiana more competitive with Texas and Florida, which have no state income tax. He said the two states have grown six times as fast as Louisiana since 2010.

Nelson generally votes with Republicans, but the newspaper said he breaks with conservatives by advocating the legalization of marijuana, supporting exceptions for rape and incest for abortions, and opposing the anti-LGBTQ+ measures that would ban certain books from libraries and prohibit discussion of sexuality and gender in classrooms.

“They don’t solve any problems,” he says of those two measures. “I denounce the culture wars and say they are unproductive.”

The political culture needs changing in this state, so Nelson is on the right track. Unfortunately, embedded ideas are extremely difficult to change. Public officials at the state level, including legislators, love to give handouts to local governments.

One major item is supplemental pay for local law enforcement officers and other first responders. The Public Affairs Research Council talked about the millions of dollars wasted on unvetted earmarks.

“Santa Claus has nothing on the Louisiana Legislature,” the nonprofit agency said. “As they rushed to spend record levels of state cash, Louisiana’s lawmakers steered the astonishing sum of at least $191 million to questionable local projects that received no public vetting and that sidestepped any processes to prioritize state needs.”

Nelson knows he’s facing an uphill fight to get the campaign financing and name recognition he needs, but give the guy credit for courage to campaign on legitimate issues.