A couple of tax bills have been moved to the House floor for debate. Some Republicans want to make the temporary penny sales tax permanent, but Shreveport Representative Alan Seabaugh is not in favor of that plan. He wants to see the penny fall off the books in 2021.
Seabaugh says "give us a couple more years to see if we can fix the problem, before we permanently stick our hand this much deeper into businesses' pocket."
If this measure passes, the sales tax going to the state would be four and a quarter percent until June 30, 2021. We pay 5 percent to the state now, but just a couple of years ago the rate was 4 percent.
As part of this change, some Democrats want the House Ways and Means Committee to remove tax breaks for middle and upper income wage earners who itemize deductions on tax returns. The panel did on a 10-7 vote.
These two tax changes are now before the full House where they need 70 votes to pass.
Governor John Bel Edwards outlined his plan for fixing our fiscal cliff.
The special session must end March 7th. Lawmakers spent the first week of the special session bickering over different ways to address the budget crisis and most bills stalled out in committee.

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