Jeff Landry to travel to South Korea to promote investment, days before tax special session

Gov. Jeff Landry is departing for South Korea on Monday to promote investment in Louisiana.

The governor’s office is not disclosing any details of the trip until Monday, but sources said that among those accompanying him will be Susan Bourgeois, the secretary of Louisiana Economic Development.

Landry took office in January, promising to be a strong advocate for Louisiana as a place for investment. This will be his first trip overseas to promote investment in the state.

While running for office, Landry was critical of past efforts to promote economic development and trade, pointing specifically to what he said was a parochial approach by state government agencies.

In June, he created the Louisiana Economic Development Partnership, a private sector-led board charged with developing a strategic plan for the state and coordinating the myriad local economic development agencies. The 12-member committee, which includes supermarket boss Donny Rouse and oil executive Leah Brown, also aims to find ways to cut through a sclerotic bureaucracy to funnel investment dollars and services to businesses.

Landry also created in August a powerful new state body, the Louisiana Ports and Waterways Investment Commission, headed by Marc Hebert, which is tasked with coming up with a comprehensive state port strategy that would put an end to parochial infighting for limited resources.

On Thursday, the Port of New Orleans named Beth Ann Branch as its new CEO. Branch was recruited from Gulf Coast rival Port of Mobile, which has sharply outperformed New Orleans over the past decade in terms of increasing its volume of container cargo, the most important category of oceangoing trade.

As with other state boards, Landry broke with tradition to make sure his personal pick was put in place to chair the Port of New Orleans commission. Last month, he installed Mark Thomas, the personal lawyer of Landry donor and confidante businessman Shane Guidry.

The governor’s trip will interrupt his efforts to sell state legislators and key constituent groups on his complicated proposal to rewrite Louisiana’s tax code at a special session he plans to call for Nov. 6.

Landry says his tax package would make Louisiana more attractive for residents and investors.

It would lower the top individual and corporate income tax rates while establishing a flat tax rate, raise the standard deduction for individuals and eliminate the corporate franchise tax.

Landry would offset the resulting revenue losses by ending dozens of sales tax exemptions, renewing the expiring 0.45-cent sales tax, extending the sales tax to 40 activities that go untaxed today and eliminating several job incentive programs such as the film tax break that provide taxpayers with only about 20 cents for every dollar they spend, according to independent analysts.

Lawmakers praise the plan in general terms but are voicing concerns from their local sheriffs, school boards, police juries and parish governments that it might leave them with less money for schools, prisons, police and other services.

Landry and Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson pitched the plan to parish presidents on Friday. The governor will need at least a two-thirds margin in both the House and the Senate for each revenue-raising measure.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell flew to South Korea last year for a climate expo, a trip that caused controversy because she upgraded to first-class seats.