HOUSE COMMITTEE CUTS INCOME TAX BREAK IN HALF
by DOUG SIMPSON - Associated Press (LA) (excerpt)

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — An income tax break moved through a House committee on Tuesday, a change to the so-called "Stelly Plan," though the proposal is far less generous to Louisiana taxpayers than a bill approved by the Senate.

The House Ways and Means Committee approved a bill that would allow taxpayers to deduct half of their home mortgage interest, charitable contributions and medical expenses beginning in 2009. The measure, by Rep. Taylor Townsend, D-Natchitoches, the committee chairman, now moves to the House.

Senators last week approved a bill that would allow taxpayers to deduct 100 percent of those expenses beginning in 2010.

The deductions had been allowed until the Legislature and voters approved changes to the state tax code known as the Stelly Plan in 2002.