BATON ROUGE, La. – Today, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) released the following statement on behalf of President and CEO Will Green. Both chambers of the Louisiana Legislature adjourned sine die Friday, concluding the third extraordinary session of 2024.

“For years, LABI has been consistent in advocating for an overhaul of Louisiana’s complex, outdated and burdensome tax code in favor of a fair, predictable, and modern system that works for the state’s citizens and business owners. Additionally, our recommendations, outlined in LABI’s LA Driven strategic plan released last year, prioritize policies that will encourage investment in our state and bolster Louisiana’s competitiveness with neighboring states, many of which annually revisit their tax policies to ensure maximum competitiveness.

“Encouragingly, from the outset, many of the administration’s proposals mirrored recommendations in LABI’s LA Driven Strategic Plan, including:

• Repealing the corporate franchise tax,
• Flattening and eventually eliminating the individual income tax,
• Reducing the corporate income tax, and
• Broadening and modernizing our state’s sales tax base to include digital goods.

“Lawmakers made great strides over the last two weeks towards improving the state’s business climate by passing tax reform measures that incentivize investment, innovation and growth. Unfortunately, some critical reforms, including a full repeal of the business inventory tax and streamlining the state’s sales tax collection system—both well-known barriers to investment and business growth—were not approved as part of the plan.

“Plenty of work remains to be done. As we prepare for the 2025 Regular Session, which will again focus on fiscal issues, LABI will remain engaged with legislative leadership and the administration alongside a broad coalition of trade associations, advocates for the energy and transportation sectors and employers, who, in total, employ hundreds of thousands of Louisianans and generate billions of dollars in tax revenue for the state annually.

“We appreciate the hard work of administration officials, lawmakers, stakeholders, and the dedicated legislative staff for their contributions to a compromise package that Louisiana’s job creators and citizens deserve.”

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