The May 30, 2010 edition of the Baton Rouge Advocate’s lead editorial “A State Break in Drilling” focused on the Louisiana Budget Project’s recently released research paper on the state’s expenditures on tax breaks, Louisiana’s Hidden State Budget. An excerpt from the editorial:
Drilling in one of the richest onshore finds in American history is being encouraged with a state tax break.
The Louisiana Budget Project has issued a report that focuses on this as well as other “tax expenditures” — the breaks granted to industries or individuals to avoid taxation.
. . . .
While the Budget Project rather over-dramatically calls the tax breaks a “hidden budget,” the fact is that once granted, a tax break almost never is repealed.
Lawmakers, special interests and just plain inertia mean those benefiting from a tax break continue to do so, whether the original rationale for it continues or not.
To read the full editorial, click <here.>
