Together Louisiana recently published a report on Louisiana’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program with a cost benefit analysis and breakdown by parish.
Annual Parish Public Services Total: $2,378,314
The following excerpt is from the Together Baton Rouge report, Giving Away The Farm:
“Since 1936, Louisiana has been the only state in the nation to endow a state-level board with the authority to approve corporate exemptions from local property taxes, without the approval, or even knowledge, of the local entities paying the cost of those exemptions. It’s called the industrial tax exemption program, or ITEP, and it is the largest program of state subsidies to corporations in the nation. In the current fiscal year, local governments in sixty of Louisiana’s sixty-four parishes are losing $1.9 billion in revenue due to ITEP exemptions. The exemptions affect the budgets of cities, parishes, sheriffs departments, fire districts, libraries, parks – any entity that receives revenue from a local property tax millage. The entities hardest hit by ITEP are Louisiana’s public schools.”
Read the full report at togetherbr.org
