Industrial Tax Exemptions

UPDATE:    The Council meeting was well attended by members of the local fire department which still struggles with its budget and at times has closed fire stations, sometimes on a rotating basis. The local fire department seeks to receive a portion of the Hotel Motel tax, and the council passed a resolution to begin legislation to put that issue to a vote of the people. It would be interesting to learn if the St Bernard Parish Fire Department supports granting or denying Industrial Tax Exemptions (ITEPs), or if the Lake Borgne Basin Levee District might deny their portion of the exemption and finally maintain the rain drainage canals consistently and responsibly. The Port of St Bernard also has a property milleage which it can grant or deny an exemption for this industry. .

The Council’s two motions to deny the ITEPs applications on the agenda were both passed.

The Council approved an “abuse addiction treatment facility” in a school zone, in the heart of a neighborhood friendly business corridor. The school zone is for the community’s only high school and students who live in this neighborhood walk to high school because of the close proximity. It is unclear whether this treatment facility will address the growing number of drug overdose deaths in our community or if it will be a pill factory which increases the drug trafficking in a school zone.

There were other ordinances passed, most without discussion or comment, and the agenda contains so little information it is impossible to know what decisions were made.

Original post:
Tuesday February 5 2019 St Bernard Parish Council public meeting on two Industrial Tax Exemption applications (ITEPs).

There is no available information at this time on the Council's agenda except the application number. There is no indication which industry is the applicant, what is the scope of the project, the amount of the tax exemption, the cost - benefit analysis; nothing.  It will be interesting to learn how a local council can make such a decision without information; unless it is available to the council and not the general public, even upon request. Just another example of the lack of transparency, lack of equal access to all the information before the decisions are made. But its not surprising.


Notice of Public Meeting

Agenda Item 20

Agenda Item 21

Council Agenda

Last month,  the local Baton Rouge, La school board voted against granting ExxonMobil two property tax breaks,"one for work at its Baton Rouge refinery and another at its polyolefins plant."  "The company was seeking exemptions from school property taxes worth about $2.9 million over 10 years. The work in question was completed in 2017, and ExxonMobil had a difficult time explaining while it still need a tax break for them."

https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/education/article_09cb2d54-1a68-11e9-a672-7f6ee09f1f74.html


Also not surprisingly, Louisiana legislators seek to pass legislation which will take away the local decision making , even though these tax exemptions come out of the local budgets.  

 https://www.1012industryreport.com/politics/baton-rouge-area-legislators-drafting-bill-to-return-itep-to-state-control/