John Schroder
A report from the state Department of Revenue finds that tax and fee collections for the month of April were $494 million lower than the previous April. State Treasurer John Schroder says this paints a dismal picture of the economic situation, adding that next month will be worse.
“The numbers we are looking at today are from March. We had half an economy in March. We didn’t have any in April, so May’s numbers are going to come in pretty bad,” said Schroder.
Governor John Bel Edwards’ stay at home order went into effect March 23, which closed many businesses. That’s led to a decline in income and sales tax collections. Schroder expects tax collection numbers to remain low for several months.
“This crisis is different. You are not going to have some big rebound with sales taxes and the buying of goods and the creation of jobs and construction work. You are not going to have any of that,” said Schroder.
Schroder believes raising taxes would make things harder on businesses, further sending the economy into a tailspin, so the state needs to prepare to slash its spending.
“It’s not good to spend every dime that you have and we still do that. The last administration did it and this one does it the same, so I think the legislature needs to pay attention to that,” said Schroder.
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