Repealing the Stelly Tax

June 16th, 2008 | Posted by admin

Dear Friends,

Repealing the Stelly Tax

The passage of SB 87, which repeals the burdensome Stelly Tax, marks our sixth tax cut since taking office in January and marks the biggest single income tax repeal in the history of our state.  This puts money back where it belongs - in the pockets of hard-working families in our state.

As reported in the Baton Rouge Advocate, this legislation will “initially cut state income taxes by $359 million per year.”  This is great news for the hard working families of our state.

Taxpayer money is not an open checkbook for government to spend at will, and I am a firm believer that people can spend their money better than government. I will continue to work to instill fiscal discipline and responsible use of your money.

But as the Baton Rouge Advocate points out in an editorial, “the appetite for stuffing the pork barrel appears not to be decreasing, but instead increasing in the Legislature.” That must end.  Let me be clear — pork-barrel spending does not have a place in our budget, and that I will veto any projects that do not meet specific criteria. As the Advocate concludes, this standard is “one of the correct ways to analyze whether state money ought to be spent,” and vetoing this type of spending would “be a healthy step forward for Louisiana to inject more rigor into the politics of budget-building in the State Capitol.”

Improving our Health Care System

This past week our mental health package was passed almost unanimously by the Legislature, ensuring a new future for our state’s mental health system. As the Lafayette Daily Advertiser said, these bills “will serve the state well in dealing with what many consider a crisis in mental health care,” and “we salute the governor for pushing such needed legislation.”

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita served to highlight the problems our mental health system was faced with even before the storms, and this is a great step forward in providing proper mental health care for all Louisianians. Chief among these bills is “Nicola’s Law,” which allows a judge to order mandatory outpatient treatment for mentally ill patients who may be a danger to society when not provided with supervision. The bill has been named after slain New Orleans Police Officer Nicola Cotton, who was allegedly murdered by a mentally-ill patient who had been in and out of mental institutions and was off his medication.

Additionally, I was pleased to be joined by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt in Baton Rouge last week to announce that Louisiana has been selected as one of the first four states to take part in a national Medicare demonstration project that will help pay physicians to move to using certified electronic health records to improve the quality of patient care. As the Baton Rouge Advocate noted, this is an issue that has been important to me since I served as Secretary of DHH, saying “there is no doubt that Jindal has been involved in the issue for years.” Indeed, we have provided $18 million in our budget to encourage physicians and hospitals to use electronic health records.

Electronic medical records have the capacity to completely transform our health care system, making it more efficient, cost-effective, and able to provide quality care to more people. More than 100,000 Americans die each year from avoidable medical errors, and studies have shown that nurses spend an hour filling out paperwork for every hour of care they give at many hospitals. This program will be a huge boost to fixing these issues, and I am very pleased that Louisiana has been chosen to participate.

Investing in Lake Pontchartrain and Storm Protection

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated South Louisiana, leaving tons of debris in their wake.  Now some of that debris will be put to helping protect our state from future hurricanes. 

A new initiative, announced last week, will use debris from the old Interstate 10 Twin Span bridges damaged by Hurricane Katrina, to help shore up our levees and help support our marine wildlife, saving the state upward of $15 million. As reported in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, these efforts will strengthen “breakwaters off the coast to help reduce storm surge in the lake.”

This is a first for Louisiana, and will be an incredible interagency effort to provide not only an important habitat for our marine wildlife, but to help support the levee and flood protection systems in and around New Orleans. The reefs will be constructed of rubble from the demolition of two 500 foot spans of the Twin Span Bridge, and their construction is scheduled begin next year.

Protecting our Teachers

The Legislature also passed the Teachers Bill of Rights last week, an important part of my education reform package. We must ensure that our teachers have the support of administrators and families alike, and that they will be protected against violence in the classroom. This bill of rights will give teachers the confidence that we stand behind them to do their jobs.

For too long our state has been losing quality teachers at an alarming rate, and those leaving list classroom discipline as a major factor in their choice to leave. In fact, Louisiana was ranked 39th out of 40 states surveyed by a national education publication in terms of classroom discipline. In order to provide every child in our state with a quality education, we must ensure that there are quality teachers here to guide them. This bill will go a long ways towards that goal, and I look forward to signing it into law.

Traveling the State

I was honored to be joined earlier today in Leesville by Congressmen Jim McCrery and Rodney Alexander, among other public officials, to honor our armed forces. We met with community and military leaders to sign a covenant to ensure continued support and partnership development in concert with Fort Polk and Leesville.

Our servicemen and women are true heroes, and they are very important to both the present and future of our state. To underline the importance of Fort Polk to our state, we have committed funding to four-lane Louisiana Highway 28 between Alexandria and Fort Polk, increasing development opportunities and transportation access in the area for years to come.

Also, our hurricane preparedness tour made a stop in Lake Charles last week in order to continue educating residents on the importance of being prepared for a storm in advance.

Once a storm comes it is too late, stressing the importance that every family has their own plan in place. I once again encourage you all to visit www.GetaGameplan.org for ideas and suggestions as to how to prepare for hurricane season.

Sincerely,

 Bobby Jindal

Governor Bobby Jindal

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