Judging from the results, it seems a lot of people went through the "window of opportunity" offered by the state's Tax Amnesty Program earlier this fall. The program that offered state tax payers owing delinquent taxes a chance to pay up without any penalties and only 50 percent of the interest totaled $457,318,689 as of Dec. 18. This almost three-times the $192.9 million collected in 2001 when the program was last utilized. It also far exceeded the $150 million expectations. "Collections in the 2009 Louisiana Tax A m n e s t y Program outpaced the 2001 program at every stage," said Cynthia Bridges, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Revenue. "This was a smashing, overwhelming success. Nobody had any idea," said Bossier City Rep. Jane Smith, who championed the bill in the Louisiana House. Gov. Bobby Jindal signed the bill in July 2009 creating the tax amnesty program. The program ran Sept. 1 through Oct. 31. Eligible tax payers included those who failed to report all income, file a tax return, pay full tax interest and penalties, those who claimed incorrect credits or deduction, those who misrepresented or omitted taxes due and those involved in an audit. Over 43,800 people completed amnesty applications. Of the $457 million collected, $34,934,329 was from individuals. New this time that was absent from the 2001 program was amnesty that was extended to businesses being audited by the Internal Revenue Service. Smith and Bridges believed this helped its success. The numbers seem to back this up. Over $422 million collected through the program was from businesses. Smith pointed out the promotion of the program also played into its success. "They traveled and talked about it. You had people knowing about it instead of calling in after the fact," she said. The department