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Group makes tax exemption recommendations
Published 5:09 pm Wednesday, March 28, 2018
<p class="p1"><strong>Is it true that the Police Jury, the Sheriff’s Office and the School Board, along with the economic development alliance, are part of a group that meets secretly with companies to negotiate industrial tax exemptions before the public gets a chance to weigh in on the issue?</strong></p><p class="p2">No, said R.B. Smith, vice president of business and workforce development for the Southwest Louisiana Economic Development Alliance.</p><p class="p2">The group, comprising staff members from various taxing authorities, analyzes information provided by applicants for the Industrial Tax Exemption Program, Smith said, but it doesn’t negotiate with the companies.</p><p class="p2">ITEP offers manufacturers property tax exemptions — up to 100 percent for five years and 80 percent for three additional years. </p><p class="p2">Members of the ITEP group, which has no name, “review and assess the capital investment and employment data from applications,” Smith said. The members are designated by the tax entities — the School Board, Sheriff’s Office, Police Jury and whatever municipality is home to a given project, he said.</p><p class="p2">“After reviewing data, the designees make a unified recommendation to the taxing authorities,” Smith wrote in an email.</p><p class="p2">“This recommendation is placed on the agenda for a public meeting, where the public may comment to these authorities and the elected officials vote to adopt, amend or reject the recommendation.”</p><p class="p2">The taxing authorities’ recommendations then go to the Louisiana Board of Commerce and Industry, which holds a public meeting and forwards its recommendations to the governor, who makes the final decision, Smith said.</p><p class="p2">The ITEP group’s meetings constitute “collaborative preliminary staff work” — similar to drafting budgets and resolutions — and aren’t open to the public, he said.</p><p class="p2">“The alliance arranges the time and date of meeting, gathers and provides the necessary data, and sends the letter with the recommendation,” he wrote in the email.</p><p class="p2">“Businesses must be classified as a manufacturer or related to the manufacturing project in order to receive the benefits of the ITEP program,” reads the website of the state Department of Economic Development. </p><p class="p2">“ITEP is only available for activities related to manufacturers. … The program can be used by manufacturers new to Louisiana and is also available to existing manufacturers in Louisiana with new investments to existing facilities.”</p><p class="p2">According to a Greater Baton Rouge Business Report story posted online Feb. 19, the ITEP group’s first project involved an expansion at Phillips 66. The Business Report says the Board of Commerce and Industry approved a full exemption for the company in December.</p><p class="p2">Gov. John Bel Edwards in 2016 signed an executive order outlining what exemption applications must include to receive his approval.</p><p class="p2">Among his requirements: “approvals of the relevant governing Parish Council or Police Jury by resolution, Municipal Council by resolution, School Board by resolution and Sheriff by resolution signifying whether each of those authorities is in favor of the project.”</p><p class="p4"><strong>Online:</strong> www.businessreport.com; www.opportunitylouisiana.com.</p>
The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by <strong>Andrew Perzo</strong>, an <em>American Press</em> staff writer. To ask a question, call <strong>494-4098</strong> and leave voice mail, or email <strong>informer@americanpress.com</strong>.
