Hello Bobby? Gray Davis here. Care for a little piece of advice?
by digby
Your average voter tends to get a little bit testy when a Governor ostentatiously proposes to raise sales taxes and fees. And I’m going to guess that it irks them even more when he’s simultaneously eliminating income taxes for the wealthy and the corporations:
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, one of the nation’s most prominent Republicans and a possible 2016 presidential candidate, has fallen out of favor with local voters, and his bold plan to scrap the state income tax is running into trouble.
Jindal was re-elected to a second term with two-thirds of the vote in 2011. But his Louisiana approval rating was down to 38 percent in a recent poll, worse than Democratic President Barack Obama in one of the most conservative states.
The poll suggested voters think he is spending more time traveling outside the state and burnishing his credentials for a possible White House run than tending to local matters.
As the Louisiana Legislature prepares to kick off its two-month session on Monday, Jindal’s signature proposal to eliminate the state income tax is facing resistance.
His detailed plan would do away with all state personal and corporate income taxes. It also calls for a 56-percent increase in the state sales tax, a much higher cigarette tax, and the elimination of some tax loopholes to make up the $3 billion shortfall from scrapping the income taxes.
The poor and the middle class don’t like income taxes, to be sure, but they hate sales taxes even more. They don’t like it in the abstract and they sure aren’t going to like it in reality. Just like Gray Davis’ car registration fee, it’s in their faces: going to the store and getting hit with a 56% increase in the sales tax will be right there in black and white on the receipt.
I would have thought any politician worth his salt would have realized this. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Jindal is doing what all the “big thinkers” on the right say we should be doing. But it looks like he took it for granted that his constituents are all reading Forbes and the Wall Street Journal and understand that he’s just helpin’ out the job creators. I’m going to guess they missed all that.
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