SB 87 needs action NOW!
SB 87 is a bill to cut Louisiana State income taxes for the two highest tax brackets.
The legislature has moved this bill to the Senate floor today! So call or email your Senator and tell them to support this bill. We only need 20 votes to pass this bill.
Anyone who walks out on this vote is against giving Louisiana citizens a tax break. If they don’t do it today, they’ll never do it.
Voting in FAVOR of lowering our taxes were: Senators Robert Adley, R-Benton; Dale Erdey R-Livingston; Cheryl Gray, D-New Orleans; Bob Kostelka, R-Monroe; Gerald Long, R-Winnfield; Buddy Shaw, R-Shreveport.
Voting AGAINST lowering our taxes were: Senators Reggie Dupre, D-Houma; Rob Marionneaux, D-Livonia; Neil Riser, R-Columbia.
Absent were: Senators Yvonne Dorsey, D-Baton Rouge; Blade Morrish, R-Jennings.
Call your Senator 225-342-2040
Leges Continue to Reward Themselves
In 1996 the voters of the state approved an amendment to the state constitution (LA Const. Article X, Section 29.1) to prohibit, after 1997, certain elected officials (including leges) from becoming members of the state retirement systems. The purpose was two-fold: 1) It was a recognition that such elected officials’ “jobs” are are not full-time employment, but a public service and 2) it was a small symbolic step toward actuarial sanity to the retirement systems that are billions in the red.
Now the leges are giving their colleagues (for current and former leges), elected after 1995, who cannot take part in the retirement system another perk at the expense of us taxpayers. Since term limits have kicked it, this perk could be worth more each month than membership in the state retirement system after 12 years in the Lege. House Bill No. 1028 by “lame-duck” Rep. “Hoppy” Hopkins, D-Oil City, will require the taxpayers to pickup the tab for half the leges health insurance premiums for the REST OF THEIR LIVES. To get this perk, the leges only have to serve 10 years.
This new perk not only costs us taxpayers more money, but it puts a further load on the state employees’ group health insurance program by keeping the leges onboard. The more load put on the system, the larger the amount of the taxpayers’ share of each participant’s premium. The perk eventually will likely mean an increase in the employee’s portion of the premium. This will mean that state employees will either take home less money or will have to be given raises. All at OUR expense.
Take a look at your own monthly health insurance premium. Think about how big of a perk it would be if the taxpayers of LA picked up half of that premium for the rest of your life. After thinking about that, think about what the leges have done not to to address the massive increases in your insurance premiums, including your homeowners insurance post Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
This afternoon, the House concurred in the senate amendments to the bill. The bill now heads to the governor’s desk for her signature.
To see how your lege voted go here: House Senate
A YEA vote is a vote for the perk. A NAY vote is a vote against the perk. An Absence is the same as a NAY vote.
C.B.
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Website: www.Forgotston.com
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