Exploring Long-term Solutions for Louisiana Tax System

In light of the major fiscal problems the Louisiana state government has experienced over the past decade, Exploring Long-Term Solutions for Louisiana’s Tax System by James A. Richardson, James Alm, and Steven M. Sheffrin re-examines the state’s underlying tax structure, which was created in the 1970s—its long-term stability, its basic fairness among taxpayers, its overall competitiveness, and its simplicity—and offers specific suggestions for improvements. This important study invokes standard economic principles to the current Louisiana tax structure and suggests several reforms, ranging from the state’s use of the sales tax, its application of the individual income tax, its structure of corporate taxation, and its use of other taxes such as mineral revenues. In engaging and readable prose, Exploring Long-Term Solutions for Louisiana’s Tax System shows how advocating for these reforms and a level of public expenditures that can readily adapt to potential changes in the state’s economy and natural resources, Louisiana can ensure that its future will not only be funded, but also prosperous.

James Alm is Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at Tulane University. He was formerly editor ofthe Public Finance Review, and has worked on tax compliance and tax evasion, taxand expenditure limitations, taxpayer responses to tax reforms, and the determinants of state economic growth. He has also worked on state tax reforms,as well as on international projects supported by the World Bank, the U.S.Agency for International Development, the UN Development Program, and the International Monetary Fund. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

James A. Richardson is Alumni Professor of Economics and Public Administration a tLouisiana State University. He co-edited in 1988 Louisiana Fiscal Alternatives and in 1999 Handbook on Taxation. He has served as a member of the Louisiana Revenue Estimating Conference since 1987. He has consulted with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Department of Justice. He worked with the Financial Services Roundtable regarding recovering from disasters after Hurricane Katrina. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Steven M. Sheffrin is Professor of Economics and Director of the Murphy Institute at Tulane University. He previously was on the faculty at the University of California, Davis and has served as visiting professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Princeton University, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He has served as a financial consultant to the Officeof Tax Policy Analysis with the U.S. Department of Treasury. He received his Ph.D. from the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology.