By LEONARD GRAY

BATON ROUGE – Rep. Bobby Faucheux Jr., true to his reputation as the “Energizer Bunny” of the Louisiana legislature, has a stack of proposals before the current session.

Nearly all are currently assigned to the House Ways and Means Committee.

Faucheux proposed four amendments to the Louisiana Constitution in the 2002 Regular (fiscal) Session, including one, House Bill 15, providing for an exemption from sales taxes for food for home consumption, natural gas, electricity, water and prescription drugs. A second amendment, House Bill 45, would make it effective July 1, 2007.

“I’m proposing to do this with a constitutional amendment because the only way they can be re-imposed is through a vote of the people,” Faucheux said Monday.

House Bill 39 would delete the current limitation on individual income tax rates and provide for a new limitation on individual income taxes. Yet another, House Bill 71, would authorize the State Board of Commerce and Industry to contract with developers of retirement communities and certain nursing facilities for exemptions from ad valorem taxes.

“In the last four or five years, the lieutenant governor’s office has been pushing this,” Faucheux said, “but this is the third time I’ve brought it up and it keeps getting shot down.”

Altogether, 24 bills were introduced by Faucheux for this session. Tax credits are the bulk of Faucheux’s proposals, including credits for the amounts paid for long-term nursing home care insurance premiums and for health insurance premiums

“This is to try and encourage people to go out and buy these kinds of policies and save costs on the back end,” Faucheux commented.

Also, Faucheux has proposed legislation for tax credits for contributions to a non-profit educational assistance organization, for the capital costs of construction of an economic development building and an individual income tax deduction for classroom teachers and principals.

On the last item, Faucheux commented, “This is to give them a pay raise without the state spending as much.”

Taxes would be paid only if their pay is above the southern United States average.

Faucheux is also proposing a sales-tax “holiday” for certain types of property for a limited period of time each year. “This is planned for two weeks in August, to help parents buying school uniforms and supplies.”

Also, a revision of the individual income tax brackets is proposed by Faucheux “to eliminate a regressive tax and generate more disposable income.”

House Bill 110, proposed by Faucheux, would provide a 10-year income and franchise tax exemption to businesses which manufacture equipment that utilize certain hydrogen energy technologies.

Faucheux said this developing area is working on engines running on hydrogen which would eventually make the internal combustion engine, depended on petroleum products, obsolete.

House Bill 170 is on the list as well, but Faucheux said it won’t fly this session. It’s to support local industries involved in indigenous activity – cottage industries – such as swamp tours or manufacturers of souvenirs and the like.

The way it would work is that for every new employee hired, that company would get a $720 tax credit.

However, the idea has been shut down “as not being germane to the session,” Faucheux said.