BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Over the years people have felt that Louisiana has been left behind — from energy to businesses and even education. The Pelican Institute held a solution summit about writing Louisiana’s comeback story. Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser said our comeback starts with listening.
“We need to listen to them more and that’s why I am here today, to listen,” said Lieutenant Governor Nungesser.
State leaders gathered today at the Pelican Institute Solutions Summit to answer the question: How can Louisiana come back and end up at the top of the list instead of the bottom? Nungesser believes the issues that plague education are the root of a lot of problems.
“We got to educate, we got to commit the money and the resources. And we need to give the teachers a seat at the table, just because you can get elected to the best e-board or the school board does not make you someone setting policies, there should be a committee of teachers and educators recommending,” said Nungesser.
While Nungesser believes that education is going to help Louisiana’s comeback story, Senator Mike Resse believes addressing taxes is a good start.
“I think competitive taxes policy is going to be one of those things that continue to drive people’s decision-making about states that they want to locate in,” said Sen. Reese.
Resse said that lowering taxes will help in many departments.
“The federal income tax deduction lowered the rate down to 4.75 percent, statutory down to 4.25 percent and then you saw immediately our national tax foundation score go from a 42 to a 38. We are doing some steps, I think that that will ultimately get us to a much more positive position,” said Sen. Reese.