In the three years since Gov. John Bel Edwards’ 2016 executive order began requiring local approval of ITEP requests, at least 13 tax break requests were rejected by one or more local bodies out of 88 total approved by the state and subject to local approval.
That’s according to a list of denials that Louisiana Economic Development, which administers the tax break program, is aware of and has compiled.
The list, however, does not include the ExxonMobil ITEP request that the East Baton Rouge school board denied in January. The company pulled the request after the school board rejection before other local bodies could vote on it.
The ExxonMobil denial would bring the total to 14 partially rejected ITEP projects out of 89 projects subject to local approval since the 2016 executive order, meaning 16% of applications were rejected by at least one local taxing agency over the three-year period.
Still, just because an ITEP request is rejected by one local entity doesn’t mean it doesn’t receive any tax breaks at all. The exemptions are subject to approval of several local bodies—the sheriff, school board, parish and/or municipality. If one entity denies a request but the others approve, the project still receives exemptions from the approving agencies.
All 14 ITEP denials were by only one or two entities, meaning none have been wholly rejected.
Caddo Parish, so far, has had the most ITEP denials—three. Meanwhile, Lafayette, St. Bernard and Lafourche parishes have each had two rejected requests. Beauregard, Bossier, Livingston and Orleans parishes each had one request denial. East Baton Rouge also only had one ITEP-denial instance.
State lawmakers have proposed bills to once again reform ITEP in an effort to streamline the approval process for the program, making it simpler for companies seeking exemptions. Industry leaders have long criticized the new ITEP rules under the governor’s executive order as burdensome and unpredictable.
One of the bills—Sen. Bodi White’s SB 214—will be heard on the Senate floor today.
(Editor’s note: This story has been updated since its original publication, to reflect that the 14 ITEP proposals were only partially rejected.)
