A school board says no to Big Oil, and alarms sound in business-friendly Louisiana
RICHARD FAUSSET
February 5th 2019
BATON ROUGE, La. — It was a squabble over $2.9 million in property-tax breaks — small change for Exxon Mobil, a company that measures its earnings by the billions.
But when the East Baton Rouge Parish school board rejected the energy giant’s rather routine request last month, the “no” vote went off like a bomb in a state where obeisance to the oil, gas and chemical industries is the norm.
The local chamber of commerce took out a full-page newspaper ad, warning of a rise of “radicalism.” The head of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry wrote that “the anti-business crowd has had their fun,” but needed to “cool their jets.”
And now, somewhat surprisingly, business-friendly Louisiana finds that it is the latest flash point in a roiling, community-by-community debate that pits liberals and local activists against defenders of the lavish tax incentives offered to woo big business.
It has been a David vs. Goliath story in the Louisiana capital, where a grass-roots coalition of black and white churches, activists and ordinary citizens have successfully clamored to democratize a system that used to dole out billions in property-tax breaks without giving the local school boards, city councils and other government entities that depend on those taxes any say in the matter.
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but but when democracys used as a veto; cant have that...
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but but when democracys used as a veto; cant have that...
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but but when democracys used as a veto; cant have that...
Gov. John Bel Edwards, a moderate Democrat, overhauled the process in 2016 with an executive order that for the first time in 80 years gave local governments the right to decide whether their revenue would be sacrificed to aid industry.
In the months before Mr. Edwards’s order, the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program, or ITEP, had been thrust into the public debate by the efforts of the grass-roots coalition, known as Together Baton Rouge. Before then, it had gone largely unnoticed by everyone except those who benefited from it.
The appointed panel that ran the program, the Board of Commerce and Industry, handed out nearly $10 billion in local tax exemptions between 2008 and 2016, but its actions were rarely covered in the press. Many Louisianans had no idea what the board did.
In the months before Mr. Edwards’s order, the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program, or ITEP, had been thrust into the public debate by the efforts of the grass-roots coalition, known as Together Baton Rouge. Before then, it had gone largely unnoticed by everyone except those who benefited from it.
The appointed panel that ran the program, the Board of Commerce and Industry, handed out nearly $10 billion in local tax exemptions between 2008 and 2016, but its actions were rarely covered in the press. Many Louisianans had no idea what the board did.
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