Harlan Kirgan
When the Louisiana Legislature opens its session Monday, Rep. Phillip DeVillier, District 41, said he is open to any ideas and welcomes others to share “...what can be done to fix our repeated budget problems.”
But DeVillier, of Eunice, said he ready to keep a lid on state spending.
“The first of it is we need to spend the next two years with a standstill budget,” he said Friday.
“What we are operating now is called a continuation budget. It typically adds around 13 percent every year,” he said.
DeVillier said he is ready for the state to eliminate that 13 percent annual increase in spending.
A standstill budget will save a minimum of $339 million, he said.
“The downside of that is you don’t have raises, you don’t have merit increases. It really trims down on anything that people may be expecting,” he said.
“But this is necessary to stabilize the budget and stop our government growth,” he said.
DeVillier said he is ready to look at extending some temporary tax measures, but that doesn’t include a recently added 1 percent sales tax.
“We need to remove the 1 percent increase in sales tax ... this will reduce the state sales tax from 5 percent to 4 percent. This will lower your taxes and reduce tax collections by $880 million,” he said.
DeVillier also wants legislators to look at tax incentives that are costly to the state such as one for movie production.
“There are hundreds of millions of incentives that we really need to look at,” he said.
Capital outlay spending reform is needed to include less spending and local matches, he said.
Other DeVillier views include:
— Spend more on state roads, bridges and state deferred maintenance.
— Have a transparent budget with a 3 percent reduction in spending for all departments.
— Hold a constitutional convention.
— Spread budget shortfalls throughout state departments.
“We need to quit telling our hard-working Louisiana citizens that we are cutting the budget when it is, in fact, growing,” he said.