LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) – John Fleming has been serving as the state treasurer for about eight months.
In that short period of time, he’s made a lot of changes. But, there’s another change he’s working to make a reality: the elimination of personal income tax.
Personal income tax is imposed on the income of a person or household.
In 2021, House Bill 278, was signed into law reducing individual income tax rates to 1.85 percent, 3.5 percent, and 4.25 percent. But Fleming wants to eliminate the personal income tax completely.
“Companies, people, are leaving California to come into the south, they’re leaving New York, they coming to the south, but they’re not coming to Louisiana, they’re coming to Texas, Tennessee, and Florida, and what do these states have in common, no personal income tax,” Fleming said.
Fleming says the future of the country in the financial industry, in our economy, is in the south.
“So we need to do away with the personal income tax, we need to lower the corporate income tax, we need to clear out all the excess regulations, we need to get control of crime, and we need to upgrade out school system,” Fleming said
Although Fleming plans to repeal the personal income tax, it may leave some questioning where the state is going to get revenue to replace the loss.
“The first thing I can tell you is we spend too much and waste too much, just like the federal government does, there’s plenty of waste there we could start work on that, number two as you bring more business in industry and more people, what happens is you have more taxpayers, but they’re paying at a lower rate,” Fleming said.
Fleming says industry will come to the state if an environment is created that is rewarding for people to start businesses and hire more people.
Fleming still has to bring his personal income tax repeal before the governor and legislature, which could be in the fiscal session next year.
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