"Louisiana’s decision to rein in its most lucrative corporate tax break brought $282 million in tax revenue back to local services like police departments and schools last year, a new report found.
The report, authored by the think tank Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, in conjunction with Together Louisiana, a proponent of the rollback, says the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program was “excessively generous” before Gov. John Bel Edwards scaled it back. The report says those changes have brought $16 billion in industrial property back onto the rolls, without sacrificing new industrial projects. In total, $761 million in tax revenue has flowed back to local governments from 2016-2021.
Edwards’ changes, made by executive order in the governor’s first term, limited the amount of industrial property that can be exempt from property taxes and added other rules. They netted $115 million for parish services, $113 million for schools and $55 million for law enforcement, largely in heavily industrial parishes along the Mississippi River and in southwest Louisiana, the report said.
The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, which advocates for a quicker transition to a “a diverse, sustainable and profitable energy economy,” attributes virtually all of the growth in industrial property on Louisiana’s tax rolls to the changes Edwards made. Taxable property in other business categories remained nearly flat from 2016 to 2021, the time period analyzed. Together Louisiana scheduled a press conference for 10 a.m. Tuesday to tout the report."
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