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Louisiana
Mike Foster, Republican
Legislature: Democratic
Took Office: 1/96
Grade: C
If nothing else, Mike Foster has succeeded in bringing
a sense of normalcy and ethical standards to a state whose
political culture had been tarnished in previous years by
the racist Republican David Duke and the indicted Democrat
Edwin Edwards. In 1995 Foster switched parties and beat a
crowded field by running as an anti-gun-control, anti-
gambling fiscal conservative. In his first year he managed
to balance the Louisiana budget without new taxes or budget
gimmickry for the first time since 1993--arguably his signa-
ture accomplishment. He did so by holding spending growth
to below inflation and reducing a bloated state bureaucracy
that had been padded for years with layers of patronage
jobs. He also successfully pushed through the heavily Demo-
cratic legislature a $25 per child tax credit and a four-
year $360 million bond repayment plan in a state long
plagued by heavy indebtedness. But last year Foster fal-
tered. The Louisiana economy has underperformed the na-
tion's because of its heavy dependence on oil (the state
loses $22 million in revenues for every $1 drop in crude oil
prices) and increasingly intense foreign competition in the
fishing industry. To make up for lost revenues, Foster won
a $300 million renewal of sales taxes on food and utilities
to pay for teacher salary hikes and a 20-year extension of a
4 cent a gallon gas tax to pay for infrastructure improve-
ments. One of the few promising developments in the budget
was the creation of a blue-ribbon panel to recommend re-
structuring of the Louisiana tax code. If Foster wants to
leave a legacy of fiscal sanity and integrity, he will have
to repair Louisiana's loophole-laden, high-rate tax system.
The tax code is one of the most enduring remnants of Louisi-
ana's era of cronyism and corruption.
Score Grade Rank
Overall Fiscal Policy Score
47
C
24
Spending Score
41
C
32
Revenue and Tax Rate Score
49
C
25
Amount
0.7%
Average Annual Recommended Change in Real Per Capita General Fund Spending through 1999
0.9%
Average Annual Change in General Fund Spending Per $1,000 Personal Income 1996-98
-2.3%
Average Annual Recommended Change in General Fund Revenue Per $1,000 Personal Income through 1999
1.1%
Average Annual Change in Real Per Capita General Fund Revenue 1996-98
0.0%
Average Annual Recommended Tax Changes as % of Prior Year's Spending through 1999
0.0
Change in Top Personal Income Tax Rate, proposed and/or enacted (% points)
0.0
Change in Top Corporate Income Tax Rate, proposed and/or enacted (% points)
14.0
1998 Combined Top Income Tax Rates (Personal plus Corporate) (*0.5)
0.0
Change in Sales Tax Rate, proposed and/or enacted (% points)
4.0
Change in Gas Tax Rate, proposed and/or enacted (cents per gallon) (*0.5)