Senate OK's surplus return to taxpayers

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: May 14, 2009 - Page: 1A

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Louisiana taxpayers could get a tax refund or rebate from future state surpluses under a proposed constitutional amendment endorsed Wednesday by the state Senate.

The Senate voted 37-0 for the proposal that would add a seventh option to the alternatives available for spending surplus dollars.

A surplus is the money left over after state government pays the bills. Three recent fiscal years ended with surpluses, the spending of which is limited under law.

For instance, the state has an $865 million surplus left over from the fiscal year that ended June 30. Lawmakers are debating how to spend that money.

But state government is expecting $1.3 billion less revenues than are necessary to pay the bills for the fiscal year beginning on July 1. Government officials predict three more years of shortfalls, which will require spending cuts in order to balance the annual budget.

Surplus money usually goes to construction projects, said state Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Grosse Tete.

“Rather than spend it on projects,” Marionneaux said, “my constituents want the money back.”

Senate Bill 8, if approved by lawmakers and the state’s voters, would allow legislators to choose to return surpluses to taxpayers in the form of rebates or refunds for individuals who paid income taxes.

The measure needs a two-thirds vote in each chamber, which it easily received in the Senate, then it would go to state voters for approval Nov. 2, 2010.

State Sen. Nick Gautreaux, D-Meaux, the sponsor of SB8, said taxpayers helped generate the state surplus dollars and there should be a way to return some of that money to them.

Before the legislation was approved, one state senator attempted to set aside some of the surplus to help pay down the long-neglected state retirement systems’ debts.

Louisiana’s two major retirement systems for teachers and state employees would have to pay $11 billion, which they do not have, to cover the benefits of their members today.

“We really don’t pay any attention to it,” said state Sen. Butch Gautreaux, D-Morgan City, chairman of the Senate Retirement Committee. “We are going to leave it to the next generation.”