Special session items

More than 35 bills have been filed for the Legislature’s second special session on taxes this year. The proposals introduced so far mainly deal with income tax, tax credits and exemptions, and “clean-up” on the state sales tax from the first special session.
Garage sales, tickets to school sporting events and the Girl Scouts inadvertently were taxed by lawmakers earlier this year as they hastily scrambled to plug a massive budget deficit by changing the state’s sales tax.
In doing so, legislators repealed exemptions on the sales tax for donations to food banks, school lunches and tickets to New Orleans Saints, Pelicans and Zephyrs home games -- taxes that could have allowed those teams to walk from their contracts.
Lawmakers will work during the next 18 days to fix those issues that many agree should never have been taxed.
While Gov. John Bel Edwards hopes lawmakers will plug the $600 million budget hole, many are aiming much lower -- $200 million to $300 million -- with hopes to only cover some TOPS and hospitals costs.
Personal income tax is one of the topics for plugging the budget shortfall. Reducing the excess federal personal itemized deduction is on the agenda as House Bill 11 by Rep. Rob Shadoin, R-Ruston.
His bill would reduce the deduction from 100 percent to 57.5 percent, effective Jan, 1 of this year. That would raise roughly $150 million, and affect mostly middle and upper-income taxpayers.
Other bills would reduce tax credits like the Citizens Insurance credit, which applied to people who paid the “insurance of last resort” assessment on top of their homeowner’s policy during hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Also targeted is the net capital gains tax, another personal deduction.
Lawmakers will be in session until June 23.