Riser undecided on sales tax proposal
by Joey Martin - posted Wednesday, January 30th, 2013 @ 3:51 pm

State Sen. Neil Riser says he's undecided whether he'll support Gov. Bobby Jindal's proposal to eliminate the state's personal and corporate income taxes while raising the state's sales tax.

Riser asked attendees at the Ferriday Rotary Club luncheon Thursday at Panola Woods what they thought about the matter.

"I am not committed either way right now," he said. "I want to see where we are going with this. I also want to see how we are going to pay for it."

Chairman of Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee, Riser said he has been meeting with Jindal two to three times a week, but remains hard-pressed to support a seven percent sales tax rate.

"I'm open minded, but I don't think anybody is comfortable with seven percent," he said. "Everybody would like to see the income tax eliminated, so now the discussion is how do we pay for it."

The Legislature convenes in April.

"Any revenue-raising measure starts in the House of Representatives," Riser said.

Legislative members learned last September there is a difference between tax exemptions and tax exclusions. The latter essentially calls for no record-keeping, requiring some guesswork as to the effectiveness.

"And then there's another category, for things like the Internet sales tax, which is supposed to be self-reported," Riser said.