Bill aimed at taxing medical marijuana in Louisiana becomes infrastructure overhaul

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – A invoice that began as a tax on medical marijuana has now modified to 2 completely different tax overhauls. After an try to make use of a brief half-cent gross sales tax for infrastructure plans failed, lawmakers want to shift cash elsewhere to repair Louisiana roads and bridges.

Home Invoice 514 by Consultant Tanner Magee has modified lots over the few weeks:

Final week on the senate ground Senator Rick Ward added an modification that might make the temporary sales tax carried out in 2018 everlasting. Beginning in 2025 beneath that modification, the $350 million can be taken from the final fund and put right into a development solely sub-fund. Even with the backing of Senate President Web page Cortez, the Legislative Conservative Caucus opposed it alongside Democrats.

Now there’s a new push to deliver funding to repair infrastructure development.

“They removed the medical marijuana tax altogether, they added a automobile gross sales tax to the invoice with some tasks,” Rep. Magee mentioned.

The modification would take hundreds of thousands of {dollars} out of the automobile tax. About 75% would slowly be redirected to the development sub-fund, regularly growing by means of 2025. This could come out to round $375 million a yr, which at the moment goes in the direction of well being care, schooling, and varied different state providers.

The Senate accepted the modifications with none objection and now awaits approval and debate within the Home.

By federal COVID reduction support, the legislators allotted $560 million in the direction of infrastructure for quite a lot of completely different roads and bridge tasks. President Joe Biden can be engaged on a serious infrastructure invoice that would deliver further cash to the state development finances.

Senator Ward mentioned in committee final week that the problem of fixing the state infrastructure has been pushed off far too lengthy and it must be addressed now to raised incentivize folks to not transfer out of the state. Rep. Magee requested to maneuver the invoice to a convention committee to work out a few of the kinks in that new modification.