Allain: Look now for ways to trim budget

State legislators should use the next year to look for budget cuts to avoid the budget mess they faced during the 2015 regular legislative session, said state Sen. Bret Allain.
Allain, R-Franklin, was the guest speaker during Monday’s St. Mary Industrial Group luncheon meeting at the Petroleum Club of Morgan City.
Allain has served on the Joint Legislative Budget Committee and Senate Finance Committee for four years. The issue that keeps committee members awake at night the most is the state’s budget, he said.
Legislators had to close a projected $1.6 billion budget shortfall going into the 2015 session in order to have a constitutionally mandated balanced budget.
To help reduce the state’s future budget problems, legislators must first examine the state’s tax deductions and exemptions, Allain said.
“Most of them, we should probably put a sunset on them so it forces us to look at their effectiveness every five years,” he said.
State officials should look through contracts the state has with private companies to “see if we’re getting bang for our buck,” Allain said.
The Legislature must find ways to make state government run more efficiently and find “outdated programs” to cut, Allain said.
“Most programs are like concrete. They’re heavy, and they get set in place. And it’s hard to move them out once they’re there,” he said.
State leaders should still make sure the state can provide funds for higher education, health care, roads and bridges, and many other areas, he said.
The state has to find a way to increase funding for transportation projects, Allain said.
“We’ve raided the transportation trust fund, and we’re so far behind on our maintenance and roads and our bridges,” he said.
Allain wants to find funds to complete I-49 South, especially the segment from Morgan City to Calumet. Allain drives that stretch of highway along U.S. 90 two to three times a week that he referred to as “the gauntlet.”
“It’s dangerous. There’s not a week goes by I don’t see an accident. … We’ve got to get that section finished,” Allain said.
“It’ll bring us additional businesses and development here that’s sorely needed so we can try to diversify a little bit into different industries,” he said.
Allain plans to work to accomplish a couple initiatives within the next year and is teaming with the state Legislative Auditor to create “a taxpayer bill of rights.”
The bill of rights would require millage proposals to have full disclosure of what the money will be used for, how much total money will be used, and how much individual taxpayers will pay, Allain said.
No millage rates should increase without voter approval, he said.
Additionally, Allain is going to work with the state Department of Revenue to find a way to repeal the state inventory tax.
“I think that’s an outdated tax that needs to go,” he said.
The tax dates back to the 1800s and is paid to local governments. Inventory taxpayers then receive a refund from the state for those taxes, Allain said. The tax “has become a $500 million burden on state government.”
The Legislature needs to find an alternate revenue stream for local governments to replace the inventory tax revenues, Allain said. But he doesn’t believe the state should be subsidizing funds for local communities.
“We need to once and for all separate the local funding from the state funding because we can’t afford that anymore,” Allain said.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review staff. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com.