Tax reform. Yes, the Legislature is talking about it again. Tax reform has been talked about many times during the 56 years I have been following developments in the state’s law-making body, but success has been rare.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry and Richard Nelson, his secretary of the state Department of Revenue, want to talk about it again during a possible special session before the year ends.

Nelson is supposed to talk about his plans today during a joint meeting of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee, the Legislature’s two major money committees.

The Advocate said Nelson noted that Landry and Republicans who control the Legislature think spending grew unnecessarily during the eight-year administration of Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards. So the Landry administration thinks a flat income tax plan is possible without hurting the public.

That’s their opinion, but that’s all it is. Some of the state’s government agencies have already said how damaging it is going to be if they have to face the future with insufficient revenue because of belt-tightening the GOP leadership thinks is possible.

Louisiana isn’t at the top of all the bad lists and at the bottom of all the good ones because it is spending too much money. It isn’t spending nearly enough to bring about serious change in the everyday lives of this state’s 4.6 million people.

Now, this is some of what these new leaders think is possible:

Nelson wants to enact a 3.8% flat income tax. Individuals who earn up to $12,500 now pay 1.85% of their income in taxes. Those who earn between $12,500 and $50,000 pay 3.50%. And those making over $50,000 pay 4.25%.

A 3.8% flat tax is supposed to generate as much money as those three rates do now. To make up for the higher taxes lower income people would have to pay, Nelson wants to almost triple the $4,500 standard deduction to $12,500.

However, to do what Nelson wants would depend on whether lawmakers can also eliminate tax breaks on income taxes and sales taxes. Again, I can’t even count the number of times that has been tried over many years without success.

Anyone who doubts that needs to speak with former Republican state Reps. Stuart Bishop of Lafayette, Julie Stokes of Kenner and Barry Ivey of Central near Baton Rouge. All three have sponsored a number of those unsuccessful bills.

The Advocate said Stokes “still bears the battle scars from countless hours” of trying to end sales tax exemptions.

“There’s an endless sea of interested parties,” Stokes said.

As The Advocate reported, the inability to end tax breaks in the past helps explain why Louisiana has the country’s highest state and local combined sales tax of 9.56%.

Unlike his Republican successors, Edwards managed to get legislators to pass two sales taxes, one of them to cover a $2 billion deficit he inherited from the Gov. Bobby Jindal administration.

The 1% increase at a special session in 2016, Edwards’ first year in office, passed the House 76-28 and the Senate 29-10. That is six votes more than the two-thirds required in the House and three more than the 26 required in the Senate.

When the 1% tax expired in 2018, a Republican legislator sponsored a 0.45% sales tax increase that passed the House 74-24 and the Senate 33-6. It is obvious the tax would not have passed without Republican support.

That tax is going off the books next June 30. That is why another deficit has to be handled, either with damaging budget cuts, increased taxes or tax reform, which has been extremely unsuccessful in the past.

Nelson has also mentioned applying the sales tax to services that go untaxed today. Rep. Gene Reynolds, D-Minden, in 2017 tried to do that by taxing streaming entertainment services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. There were also many other service industries scheduled for sales taxes.

Reynolds pulled his sales tax bill, saying, “At some point in time, you have to deal with reality. I didn’t want to waste time and have my political capital spent” on legislation that wasn’t going to pass.

Bishop did the same thing with a 2023 bill that would have ended a number of tax credits and exemptions.

Yes, Louisiana needs tax reform, but it continues to be an extremely tough political issue.

Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than six decades. Contact him at 337-515-8871 or jim.beam.press@gmail.com.

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