Follow @ontheissuesorg

Bobby Jindal on Corporations Republican Governor; previously Representative (LA-1)

Eliminated burdensome business taxes

• Louisiana has some of the toughest ethics laws in the nation that show who you know is no longer more important than what you know when it comes to doing business in our state.
• Louisiana now has the number one workforce-training program in the country.
• Louisiana--a state that once lagged behind in business climate rankings--now ranks in the top ten of three major national business climate rankings.
• Louisiana is one of only a handful of states that have more jobs now than at the beginning of the recession.
• Per-capita personal income in Louisiana has increased by more than $3,600 over the last five years.

We paid companies, via loopholes, to not pay corporate tax

Let me put that a different way. In 2011, we actually went in the hole on corporate income tax by some $76 million. In other words, we actually paid companies through loopholes to not pay corporate income tax.

Think about that--we sent more taxpayer dollars to corporations than they paid in income taxes to the state. At the same time, the average Louisiana family of four paid nearly $2,600 in taxes.

In other words, we actually took money from families and used it to pay companies to not pay corporate income tax. That goes to show you our tax system is unfair and riddled with loopholes and exemptions.

Voted YES on allowing stockholder voting on executive compensation.

Proponents support voting YES because:

We should not deprive the public, the stockholders, from being able to do anything meaningful once they find out about scandalous levels of executive compensation or board compensation. Everyone talks about the corporate board as the remedy. But the board is often a part of the problem, being paid huge amounts of money for showing up once or twice a year at meetings.

Give the stockholders a meaningful remedy. Once you get the mandatory disclosure put in place by previous legislation, we are saying the stockholders should be allowed to have a referendum on that and not have a runaround by the board.

Opponents support voting NO because:

This vote is based on mischaracterization--it is an unnecessary amendment. The opportunity for these kinds of votes already exists within the structure of corporate governance right now. A good company from Georgia, AFLAC, went ahead and already has these nonbinding shareholder votes. But there is a difference between having individuals in the private sector, shareholders and individuals outside of the mandating of government to have it occur and have government come in with its heavy hand and say, this is exactly what you need to do because we know best. Our constituents know better how to act and how to relate to corporations than Washington.