Administration insiders confide that Tim Barfield, executive counsel and Revenue secretary-designate Tim Barfield is “in over his head” and has been removed from Gov. Jindal’s struggling tax swap team.
That might seem like a demotion for a man who has been on the job for only six months. But considering the fact that the waters of Jindal’s state tax structure overhaul have been circling the drain for weeks and are now starting to make that familiar gurgling sound, even an involuntary separation from the Jindal tax team could be looked upon as a blessing.
The governor has seen one political ally after another break with him on his ever-changing tax plan, including the heretofore compliant House Speaker Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles who put the Ways and Means Committee hearing on the tax plan on hold until House staffers complete an analysis that would give legislators a better handle on how much money the Jindal plan would raise.
The once friendly Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) also walked away from Jindal, whom the organization has traditionally supported.
Ernst & Young, the consulting firm hired by Jindal to perform an economic analysis of his tax plan even said the proposed tax swap, which would abolish the state income tax in favor of increased sales taxes, was a bad idea.
Making matters worse, Jindal recently upped the ante from the previous 5.88 percent sales tax to 6.25 percent, leaving observers scratching their heads over the administration’s inability to articulate any real plan.
On Wednesday, April 3, an emissary from the governor’s office showed up at the Department of Revenue (LDR) to demand new reports and numbers on revenue collections, saying the information was needed by the start of the session.
LDR staffers have been grinding away at the database in an attempt to comply with the governor’s ultimatum to somehow manufacture the numbers necessary to placate the legislature.
Meanwhile, Team Jindal, through Believe in Louisiana, the 527 non-profit organization founded by Baton Rouge Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister to solicit funds to advance the Jindal agenda, has made a half-million dollar media buy to initiate a slick TV ad campaign in support of the tax plan.
Many of the names of the big money men behind Jindal show up as Believe in Louisiana donors and the organization, unfettered by campaign donation limits, has pulled in individual contributions as large as $225,000, swelling its coffers to well over a million dollars.
“I don’t know why they’re throwing good money after that dog,” said one Democratic leader of the ad campaign.
Barfield, who previously served as labor secretary and as Jindal’s executive Counsel before leaving to work for home health provider Amedisys.
In order to lure Barfield away from Amedisys, Jindal added the title of executive counsel and gave him a combined salary of $250,000, more than double the $124,000 paid his predecessor, Cynthia Bridges.
Until Friday, he had been Jindal’s point man on the tax proposal, but Jindal could not have been happy two weeks ago when Barfield testified before the House Ways and Means Committee that the proposed tax swap would shift about $500 million in taxes to businesses, a statement that helped galvanize the business community against the tax swap.
At that time, he was still talking about a 5.88 percent state sales tax. Jindal has since bumped that up to 6.25 percent.
Sounds like Barfield started thinking independently, which is taboo in Jitler’s regime. Next batter.
Hello Mr. Legislator. Does this tell you that Jindal “cooks the books” until he gets whatever numbers support his position? So now you see why any amounts that the Jindal administration presents to you should require independent confirmation.
Jitler…best yet!
Yeah, I like that one.
I stole it.
I agree. I’ve always used the term Emperor, but Jitler has a nicer ring to it.
While I am gratified that the legislature seems to be finally coming into its own, the reality of what they have done at the behest of child governor Jindal leaves me sad. The last five years have been nothing less than a tragic comedy.
I agree.
Me, too!!!
And we will probably never have the will or ability to correct the mistakes. Truly sad.
DNR is the Department of Natural Resources. The Dept. of Revenue calls itself LDR.
You are absolutely correct. I’ve made the correction. Thanks.
Tyler Bridges has a good piece on Speaker Kleckley at TheLensNola.
http://thelensnola.org/2013/04/05/once-called-governors-lap-dog-house-speaker-kleckley-yanks-free-of-jindals-leash/
When one political junkie falls, there is yet another to take his place. Next?
There was a time when I would have thought Kleckley’s move was part of the Machiavellian chess game the Jindal administration has been playing with Louisiana and I would have thought the same of throwing Barfield under the bus along with the many other scapegoats they have used in an attempt to reverse failures. But, with Jindal’s popularity tanking some of the Kool-Aid drinkers seem to be going on the wagon. In Barfield’s case, I think he was at least disingenuous to have walked into what he should have seen as a trap. It was never reasonable to expect projections of sales taxes in the tax reform equation to approach the precision required for balance, especially when the parameters seemed to change almost daily. It is impossible to accurately predict the interplay among the exemptions, suspensions, and expansions being considered on a given day, much less any longer, and most particularly with a constantly shifting base. Mr. Barfield would have clearly shown better sense staying with Amedisys rather than taking a salary that many of us would consider illegal to do an impossible job. I think that goes a little beyond being in over his head on the job.
Amen…
Although one must wonder what Piyush would propose to do if the tax swap resulted in an “over collection” of revenue, meaning that it was more than the cuts made. Would he have then planned to distribute dividends?
We can only hope that the legislators have finally awakened.
Long time reader, First time commenter here.
It seems the tax plan is designed to generate revenue by increasing taxes on the inputs of small businesses.
This piece addresses one of my main concerns regarding the administrations tax plan.
http://thehayride.com/2013/04/juneau-the-problems-with-taxing-business-services/
I am not sure that the complexity of the impact of the plan is appreciated by those championing it.
Getting rid of the state income tax is an idea that has considerable merit because it would make Louisiana far more attractive as a place in which to retire or locate a business. One would expect that the economic pie would become larger, more and better jobs would be created in Louisiana and all would benefit from the changes. That fact seems to be left out of the arguments one sees about the tax plan.
The problem is that Bobby Jindal’s tax reform plan is half-baked. Last year, he should have stayed home in Louisiana and worked on his plan. Unfortunately, he did not do this.
One wonders why an inflation adjustment to the motor fuel tax is not part of the package. We need more money for roads because of inflation and the motor fuel tax historically has been dedicated to roads. The motor fuel tax should be adjusted for inflation.
The legislature should strongly consider phasing in the elimination of the income tax over a three year period with progressive decreases in the income tax and progressive increases in other taxes. This would minimize the economic shock to individuals and businesses.
It may not be possible to fully eliminate corporate and personal income taxes, however it may be possible to eliminate one or the other. This would be a step in the right direction and a benefit to everyone.
iconbuster: Retired folk already pay almost nothing in personal state income tax. So how would Jitler’s plan encourage retirees to move here, when they definitely would have to pay more sales tax for almost everything they purchase? Individual parishes/towns would have trouble raising necessary sales taxes for items like schools, fire/police protection, parks, etc etc….because the state sales tax would be so high….who would vote for raises in city/parish taxes? Many local services would suffer….how would that attract businesses from out-of-state whose families would have to relocate & live here? I find that the basic premise of “LA would be a more attractive place in which to retire or locate a business,” to be totally misleading….false, actually.
Agreed bernie. And his half-uh-baked rebate on a card plan for the poor and seniors is just that…half baked. Most folks probably wouldn’t bother to fill out the paperwork involved. And also correct on the local governments. They’d never be able to pass a sales tax again on the local level, thus taking away one of their major ways of funding local government.
As I am reading all the recent resistance from legislators to Bobby’s legislative package, this tune from red-neck TV keeps running through my head. “Bad boys, bad boys, what you gonna do, what you gonna do when they come for you”. What are the bad boys gonna do when the Governor’s lieutenants come a callin’. Will they have the will to be independent or will they fold up in their cheap suits. Tim Barefield is a very bright guy and has stayed on message just like Bobby, answering questions with quick recitation of approved comments. It makes little difference whether the repeated comment has any bearing on the question. You saw it on the LPB segment.
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Gosh ! Can you dig it ? Imagine the cost of Pablum and prunes .
What’s the world on Jindal’s Senate floor leader, Conrad Appel? Is he still on board?
I wonder who was the unsung hero of spinning that coined the term, “sales tax”. The seller doesn’t pay; he only collects. If people used what would be the correct term, i.e., “buying tax”, they might take a different view how things work and of adding to it.
http://www.advantagelouisiana.com/wp-login.php?redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantagelouisiana.com This was the website Barfield mentioned when he was on LA The State We’re In. The site has never been accessible.
Perhaps Barfield realizes that through crooked politics he could lose his right to practice law and his income! One can only stand on their lies, as long as the top liar backs you up and if you catch the top liar, the others seem to disappear into the darkness.
Just a reminder to all that LPB will be streaming the Governor’s address to the Legislature live Monday. I think at 1PM.
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[…] he make it official that Tim Barfield is no longer his point person on tax reform? If so, who will be the new point […]
I actually did some very rough math on this. I took our family’s state tax liability from this past year and divided by the 2.25% (the amount of increase in sales tax that is supposed to replace the revenue from our income tax in that revenue neutral sort of way). For the state to recoup our family’s lost income tax, we would have to spend more than our total combined grossed income on goods and services (and that’s just for the 2.25%). So Yay! We’ll get a significant tax break. Unfortunately, someone else is going to have to make up that difference.
Wonder if we’ll see Jindal standing at the side of one of the local exit ramps with a cardboard sign collecting for hospitals and higher ed?
I stand by what I said in January and now the “plan” that never existed is moot for sure.
You do a wonderful job on exposing all of this. I am wondering if you could publish an article on who funded the BESE Board members campaigns and what their views are on reform. The lightning fast and uncontested approval of John White as Superintendent. Chas Roemer,s response to Diane Ravitch’s remarks in BR several weeks ago were (no other way to say it), asinine. Thank you thank you thank you for your exposes.
I am getting the blog just fine. From time to time I want to put some of this on Facebook. There is no Facebook icon to click on. Could someone please tell me how to get some of these on my Facebook timeline?
Thank you,
Susan Fagocki