Former Louisiana State Rep. Woody Jenkins (photo courtesy of Greg LaRose / Louisiana Illuminator).

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ADDENDUM (11/29/24 @ 5:28 p.m.).

Regrettably the computations in this feature are erroneous.  Please refer to this mea culpa feature for much more accurate computations.

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East Baton Rouge Parish (BBRP) Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome was the lone speaker at the Baton Rouge Press Club (BRPC) Mayoral forum held today (Monday, November 25, 2024).  Her Republican opponent, legendary high school football coach Sid Edwards, was again a no-show.

BRPC Member Jim Engster posed a question of Broome entailing her thoughts on the role of former Louisiana State Rep. Woody Jenkins in the Edwards campaign.  Here’s Broome’s response:

 11/26/24:  Broome responds to Engster’s question on the role of Jenkins in Edwards’ campaign.

Right now, we have our own totally separate issue with Jenkins!

When we first suggested the “clean penny” to Gov. Landry and his team, we jokingly stated that, unlike Michael Lunsford, Executive Director of Citizens for a New Louisiana, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns wasn’t personally called by Gov. Landry for a little pow-wow after any feature Burns had published.  We further jokingly said that, as a big advocate of Landry’s tax reform package, perhaps Burns didn’t need any, “remedial training.”  Anyone can see from the 7:16 – 7:54 segment of this video exactly what Burns stated.

Our joking commentary on “remedial training” arose from a feature Lunsford published absolutely lambasting Landry’s plan up one side and down the other.  Well, Jenkins’ newest publication, St. George Leader, on Wednesday, November 14, 2024, opted to republish Lunsford’s feature.  Here’s the headline from the feature:

Gov. Jeff Landry Calls Legislative Session To Raise $12+ Billion in New State Taxes

This published feature is the epitome of the type falsehoods we referenced in yesterday’s (November 24, 2024) feature in which we outlined in extensive detail just how Landry’s plan is a huge win for lower-income Louisiana residents.

Needless to say, The Advocate’s Tyler Bridges wasted little time exposing the rift between Lunsford/Jenkins and Landry and his team.  From Bridges’ feature:

Landry then arranged for Lunsford to receive a special briefing on it, Lunsford said in a mass email Thursday, without saying whether he now thought differently about the plan.

John Kay, Landry’s policy director, on Friday called veteran arch-conservative Woody Jenkins, who published an article Thursday in his monthly newspaper, the St. George Leader, that said the tax plan would raise $12 billion in new tax revenue for state and local government over five years.

Landry’s Revenue Department has said the plan would actually reduce state taxes by at least $700 million per year.

Kay, Jenkins said, “called to tell me to stop lying about the governor’s plan. The call did not end well. We’re seeing a lot of strong-arm tactics.”

We need to correct one thing about yesterday’s Sound Off Louisiana feature:  Even WE shortchanged Gov. Landry’s tax cut to a $35,000 a year Louisiana taxpayer by $50.  We caught the omission late yesterday evening after publication.

What did we do?  We failed to also include the reduction of the 3.50% rate to 3.00% for that segment of the taxpayer’s income which exceeded the lowest tax bracket (which is being eliminated) and the added $8,000 standard deduction.  Let us provide revised computations with the additional tax cut (that we inadvertently left out) highlighted in bold:

1.  Tax savings from elimination of lowest income tax bracket:  $12,500 x 0.0185 = $231.25.

2.  Tax savings from increasing Standard Deduction from $4,500 to $12,500:  $8,000 x 0.035 = $280.

3.  Tax savings from 3.5% bracket being reduced to 3%:  [($35,000 – $12,500 – $12,500) x 0.005] = $50.00.

3.  Combined tax savings:  $231.25 + $280 + $50.00 = $561.25.

4.  Amount of spending taxpayer would have to do in paying added sales taxes for the income tax savings to be wiped out:  $561.25 / 0.0055 = $102,045.45.

Another way to confirm our above calculations follows:

Taxpayer’s tax liability for 2024 prior to Landry’s plan:  [(35,000 – 4,500 – 12,500) x 0.035 + 12,500 x 0.0185] = $861.25.

Taxpayer’s tax liability for 2025 AFTER Jeff Landry’s plan:  [(35,000 – 12,500 – 12,500) x 0.03] = $300.

The savings?  $561.25, or a whopping 65.17% of the taxpayer’s total tax liability was CUT by Gov. Jeff Landry’s plan.

Now, notwithstanding the above computations, Tyler Bridges, in his recent article on Landry’s plan, had this to say:

Whether families that earn less than $40,000 per year will receive a net tax reduction was not clear Friday, given the sales tax increase.

About all we can say to Mr. Bridges is that we feel compelled to invoke a favorite phrase of his hero, former Gov. John Bel Edwards:  “Tyler, we can explain it to you (and did above), but we can’t understand it for you.”

Entailing Broome’s assessment of words coming out of Jenkins’ mouth, we too find some of those words to be “extremely concerning” and we’ve explained precisely why above.

Our offer stands for Jenkins, Lunsford, and even Bridges for that matter, to appear on our camera and refute the notion, as evidenced by the above calculations, that Gov. Landry’s tax plan did in fact result in a huge windfall to Louisiana lower-income individuals and families.

The final kicker?  Gov. Landry and his team were even smart enough to index the Standard Deduction going forward for inflation.  Ronald Reagan, who was first to take that action to eliminate “bracket creep,” is no doubt smiling down upon Gov. Landry right now!

CLICK HERE for Mayor-President Broome’s presentation in its entirety.