By U.S. Sen. John Kennedy Sunday was supposed to be the day that Louisiana’s state sales tax finally regained some semblance of fiscal sanity. After a year of paying sky high taxes. Louisiana families were in line for much-needed relief when sales tax dropped from 5 percent to 4 percent. Instead, they’ll be paying a rate of 4.45 percent. The reason for the ludicrous tax burden isn’t difficult to decipher if you read recent news reports about an audit by the nonpartisan Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office. That report uncovered the truth behind Gov. Edwards’ threats to yank TOPS from your kids, evict your grandmother from the nursing home and close your community hospital. The state isn’t strapped for cash because you need to pay even more in taxes. The state is strapped for cash because it can’t competently manage a program that consumes nearly half the state budget. That’s what the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office discovered when it peeked behind the curtain at the state Department of Health and Hospitals’ Medicaid program books. Auditors looked for errors in DHH’s paperwork for management of the Medicaid program. The results were far from pretty. The scathing audit found that DHH has been downright sloppy … [Read more...]