Senate Bill 277 on Digital Interactive Media Tax Credits Passes House
The Louisiana House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 277 re digital interactive media tax credits today. The bill must now return to the Senate for a concurrence vote on the House amendments. If the Senate concurs on the House amendments, the bill will be sent to the Governor for his signature. Thankfully, Senate Bill 277 received a favorable vote in the morning.
The successful passage of SB 277 will allow a wide array of software and web platform development projects to earn 25-35% marketable/transferable tax credits on the cost of production of such software and web platforms. This program will likely result in a material increase in the value of software and web platform development in Louisiana. SB 277 is authored by Senator Ann Duplessis and supported by the Louisiana Internet Software and Technology Association (LISTA), Greater New Orleans, Inc. (GNO, Inc.) and Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce (BRAC).
In the mid-afternoon after SB 277 had successfully passed the House, a small group of House members unhappy with the governor's proposed budget cuts began an effort to slow consideration of other bills on the agenda. This effort successfully prevented about 20 bills scheduled for debate from being considered and many more bills on the agenda subject to call from being considered.
At 6 PM today, the legislature reached a Constitutionally mandated deadline for considering bills that have not yet been voted on favorably by both houses. Thus, the bills remaining on the docket at 6 PM will die unless both houses simultaneously vote to allow consideration of any given bill. Some effort to get a two-third vote on some of the remaining bills will be taken tomorrow morning. It remains unknown how successful this effort will be.
One victim of this work slowdown and the hard 6 PM deadline was an amendment to the digital interactive media bill allowing the program users to choose between tax credits and a discounted tax rebate in cash. The successful passage of this bill contemplated for SB 199 would have been to put a minimum value on the tax credits in the market. LISTA, GNO, Inc. and BRAC all supported this amendment which was contemplated to be amended into SB 199. SB 277 in the form passed by the House and the Senate only provides for the issuance of marketable/transferable tax credits. It is also unknown if this bill will ultimately be considered in this session by suspension of the rules by two-thirds vote. The effectiveness of the effort to suspend the rules and allow further bills to be considered will likely be known by the middle of the day on Tuesday.
A further report will follow tomorrow.
