RESET Tax Study Highlights

Overview

RESET Louisiana is a nonpartisan collaboration between the Council for A Better Louisiana, the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana and the Committee of 100 for Economic Development. Its goal is to pursue public policy initiatives that will improve the state’s future.

As part of this work, RESET hired well-known economist and fiscal expert Greg Albrecht to conduct an independent analysis of the tax reform plan recently proposed by Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration for debate during an upcoming special session of the Legislature. The intent of this study is twofold: 1) to provide an independent review of revenue estimates to determine the impact of proposed income and sales tax changes on Louisiana citizens across a wide spectrum of income levels, and 2) to evaluate the reasonableness of certain of the revenue estimates provided by the Louisiana Department of Revenue.

 Albrecht has a wealth of experience in performing this type of analysis. He worked at the Louisiana Legislative Fiscal Office from 1985 until 2022, serving as the office’s chief economist from 1991 until his retirement from state government. In that role, Albrecht tracked economic trends and tax collections, analyzed the potential financial impacts of proposed legislation and devised income forecasts from which lawmakers built the state budget. He currently serves as a research fellow at the LSU Center for Energy Studies, where he helps estimate the financial impacts of energy investments.

In this study, Albrecht has modeled the potential tax liability impacts of the Landry administration’s proposed personal income and sales tax changes on households at various income levels. The study looks first at the income tax, then the sales tax and then analyzes what the combined tax changes could mean for taxpayers across a wide range of income brackets. 

This is important because income and sales taxes are the primary taxes that individuals and families pay to the state. When combined, they make up close to 60% of state government’s current tax collections. This study does not assess the potential impact of other components of the package.

RESET supports the broad concepts of the governor’s tax reform plan to simplify and modernize Louisiana’s uncompetitive tax system. But we also believe an independent review of what those changes mean for taxpayers is key to helping legislators and the public consider and understand the ideas that are being proposed.

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