Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration has finally begun circulating the 10 draft bills that constitute the current version of the governor’s tax reform package. The pieces are supposed to fit together into a cohesive whole that replaces the current convoluted system with one that is simpler and hopefully more attractive to businesses and residents.  However, the administration has left itself wiggle room for negotiation, so that pulling out one item doesn’t cause the entire effort to collapse like a wobbly Jenga tower. Which is politically savvy, because while many lawmakers and stakeholders are reluctant to go public with their concerns, the opponents will come out of the woodwork soon enough.  “The thought behind the whole plan was to not have a single point of failure,” Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson says.  Landry is asking lawmakers to make the temporary 0.45% sales tax permanent, sunset the state’s business tax breaks and incentives, and levy taxes on dozens of services that now are untaxed. In exchange, income tax rates would be slashed, with an eye toward possibly eliminating them altogether in the future. Voters would be asked to approve a rewrite of Article VII, the provision of the state constitution that governs taxes and revenue. Along with making an ostensibly temporary tax permanent, Landry is asking conservatives to enact numerous new taxes on things like dog grooming, streaming subscriptions and weight loss services. And what happens if some pieces pass while others don’t? Nelson doesn’t think there’s any risk of legislators approving the revenue-raising measures while not enacting the tax cuts.  “The risk is on the other side, where we make the easy reductions in the income tax rate, and then nobody wants to make the hard choices on the sales tax,” he says.  Moreover, various interest groups will want to preserve incentive programs or avoid taxing services that are important to them. Nelson says he will be able to inform those debates by explaining how each significant carve out would affect the proposed income tax rates, which currently are 3% for individuals and 3.5% for businesses. Will Green, president and CEO of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, appreciates the effort.   “Our members tell us that we need a simple, predictable, transparent tax code in Louisiana, and our current tax structure is anything but,” he says. “[But] talking about it is one thing. Getting there is another.” Louisiana has the highest corporate income tax in the South and is one of only three states left in the nation with a corporate income tax, a corporate franchise tax and an inventory tax, Green says. The package calls for scrapping the franchise tax and giving local governments the option to forgo charging the inventory tax.  But while some of the state’s incentives may no longer be worth keeping, he says, others are helping to create jobs and attract companies to the state. Many of LABI’s members will be reluctant to give up those tools.  For National Federation of Independent Business members, the proposed taxes on services is the biggest concern, says Leah Long, who directs the state chapter. Many are sole proprietors, and having to collect and remit sales taxes would create an administrative burden, she said.  On the other side of the political spectrum from LABI and NFIB sits Invest in Louisiana, which argues that Louisiana’s tax system already relies too heavily on sales taxes and doesn’t want to see the state go further in that direction.  Louisiana households in the poorest fifth pay 13.1% of their income in state and local taxes, while those in the highest-earning 1 percent pay 6.5%, Invest in Louisiana Executive Director Jan Moller said at a recent committee hearing.  “As we think about fairness, any reforms to our tax structure should look to make this equation more balanced,” he said. “We can do that by having an income tax system that maintains a progressive rate structure, so that income people earn above a certain threshold is taxed at higher rates.”  One Louisiana sector that could be squarely in the crosshairs is the film business. In most cases, a state tax break might make Louisiana more attractive than the state would be otherwise, but it probably isn’t the only reason a company is here.  The movie business is different. Many states and nations subsidize film production, so losing the incentive program has the potential to virtually kill off the industry entirely in Louisiana, which some conservative lawmakers wouldn’t mind.   “The film industry supports over 10,000 high-paying, quality jobs across the state, and nearly every major educational institution in Louisiana offers media arts curricula that prepare students for careers in this thriving sector,” Film Louisiana President Jason Waggenspack said in a prepared statement. “We believe that tax structure changes should continue to foster our favorable environment for film production, allowing this industry to flourish and contribute even more to our state’s economy.” One point of interest for the Police Jury Association of Louisiana is the severance tax. The administration has proposed lifting the cap on how much parish governments can collect on oil extraction in their jurisdictions (good news for the locals) but reducing the rate (potentially bad news, unless it induces more drilling).  “We have some concerns, but I don’t think it’s anything that we can’t work through with the Legislature,” Executive Director Guy Cormier says. “Our association is taking an approach that we’re not going to just show up and say ‘no, no, no.’”  The administration hopes lawmakers do the same. Says Nelson: “We’re going to try to fix generational problems here.” Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or Facebook. He can be reached at [email protected].