Collective madness and tax reform

The Baton Rouge special session can best be described as collective madness.

No one disputes that Louisiana’s tax policies, especially its income tax, are a contributing factor to our economic crisis. However, the Legislature refuses to acknowledge the simple “chicken and the egg” fact.

We donate untold fortunes to corporate support because we have to. We must do this because we refuse to give up the long-hollow belief that all we have to do is transfer wealth to protected crony industries and then we won’t have to worry about good politics or a favorable economic environment.

This dichotomy was clearly expressed in a quote I heard from a Democratic senator. He refused to support the governor’s plan to raise the sales tax because he said it would hurt the poor, but he also refused to end crazy movie credits because it could create jobs. That’s over a billion dollars over the last decade that could have gone to infrastructure or education, mostly benefiting the poor, just because Hollywood lobbyists are good.

By the way, I don’t only pick Democrats. Republicans are just as bad.

Wake up legislators, we can’t have prosperity as long as we have an economy that doesn’t attract business. And we can’t get there as long as we support crony capitalism by trying to buy jobs, redistributing wealth to favorites, rather than adjusting policies and taxation. This is wrong!

Cut wasteful social spending, end crony capitalism, rein in greedy trial lawyers, create fair tax policies, free up local governments so they can pay for services and infrastructure, encourage larger urban areas to pursue business attraction policies instead of wasteful social programs, etc. . about… policies that promote economic growth, which require vision and political courage.

We can’t have a chicken until we fertilize the egg. Our legislators must decide whether to continue doing the same, politically safe things, or finally topple the remnants of Huey Long, leading us to the prosperity that many other 21st century Southern states enjoy.

It shouldn’t be that difficult.