Senator Jonathan Perry joined 'Mornings With Ken and Bernie' today by phone from the Louisiana State Capitol to discuss Governor Jindal surprise move yesterday involving his tax proposal.

Yesterday at the opening of the fiscal legislative session Governor Bobby Jindal addressed a joint meeting of the Louisiana House and Senate and removed his tax plan to eliminate state income from discussion.  The Governor announced he would not press forward with his plan and if any changes would be made they would have to come from the Legislature.  According to Senator Perry,

I will say this.  I respect him.  He stepped up and said research didn't show his plan had merit and it's not something the public wanted...I was completely floored.  It was a complete surprise.

After the shocking announcement by Governor Jindal we asked Perry what the next move would be for the Legislature and he replied,

There was a lot of focus on the Governor's tax repeal plan but we still have more than a billion dollar deficit.  Some people were considering the Governor's tax plan and the budget as one issue but they're not.  Whether or not the state's income tax gets repealed or tweaked however we do it.   That is a completely different issue from the more than a billion dollar deficit that must be addressed.

The budget will have to be balanced but Senator Perry said,

I think the state income tax issue will be addressed but it will be more of a gradual shift to eliminate income taxes than the Governor's plan.

In closing Perry said every citizen should make his or her views known to their legislators using e-mail, US mail or phone.

Senator Perry had a lot more to say and you can take a listen to the entire interview:

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