BATON ROUGE – Efforts to eliminate or significantly reduce Louisiana’s state income tax appear to be on hold this legislative session, as lawmakers have signaled a more cautious approach following recent tax reductions.
House Bill 253 by Rep. Danny McCormick, R-Oil City, and House Bill 411 by Rep. John Wyble, R-Franklinton, were both voluntarily deferred Monday before even being considered in the House Ways and Means Committee.
The decisions to defer the bills reflect a broader sentiment among legislators that the state should first evaluate the impact of existing tax changes before pursuing additional cuts.
“We discussed with leadership and decided this year we needed to watch revenues,” McCormick said, adding that efforts to eliminate the income tax remain a long-term goal.
At Gov. Jeff Landry's urging in 2025, the Legislature voted to change the individual income tax rate to a flat 3%, but new proposals to further reduce the tax rate have run into political headwinds.
State Senate President Cameron Henry said in early March that if the state remains disciplined about spending, the Legislature might be able to vote in its 2027 session to reduce the new flat personal income tax rate by an additional 0.5%, to 2.5%. That would reduce state revenue by $500 million.
He said lawmakers have to keep in mind, as the state tries to maintain services, a provision already passed to reduce the state’s portion of the sales tax in 2030 from 5% to 4.75%.
“Those things you can’t adjust on the fly,” said Henry. “You really have to plan three or four years out to make sure that we’ll actually be able to lower that sales tax as we promised our consumers.”
The Legislature generally is restricted to handling tax bills in odd-numbered years, though there can be some exceptions.
McCormick’s HB 253 would have aimed to fully repeal the state income tax on the net income of individuals, as well as estates and trusts.
HB 411 introduced by Wyble, proposed a gradual reduction in the state income tax rate over a 10-year-period. Wyble framed the proposal as part of a broader strategy to improve Louisiana’s economic competitiveness and retain younger residents.
His plan would have been to prioritize tax relief for individuals earning less than $100,000 annually before extending reductions to higher income brackets. Wyble said his goal was to make the state more attractive to both current residents and those who have left.
“It’s a path forward to get our children to stay in Louisiana and to bring some of our young people back,” he said.
Despite those ambitions, other lawmakers expressed hesitation about moving forward too quickly. Rep. Tony Bacala, R-Prairieville, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee,
noted that recent tax reforms are still being assessed, suggesting that additional changes may be premature.
“Some sense that we need a little longer to evaluate our tax reforms just implemented,” Bacala said.
