In anticipation of this afternoon’s Metro Council meeting—at which council members will take up a Sept. 20 challenge filed by BREC to ExxonMobil’s property tax assessment—BREC Superintendent Carolyn McKnight has issued a public statement defending the parks and recreation system’s actions.
In its appeal, BREC alleges that ExxonMobil’s four Baton Rouge facilities are being under-assessed by some $338 million, resulting in a potential annual loss to parish agencies of some $5 million in tax revenue and to BREC, specifically, of some $700,000.
In her statement, McKnight says the BREC administration was made aware of the potential discrepancy in the assessment Sept. 17 and that the information appeared accurate, credible and based on public information.
“As our objective is to simply receive further clarification on the development of the property tax rolls by the tax assessor to ensure we are collecting the proper tax revenue, we are a bit shocked at the response we have received for exercising the appeal right provided by law,” McKnight says in her statement. “If the rolls are accurate, we would like to see how they are calculated and will move on knowing that we are receiving the proper tax revenue. If the rolls need to be revised resulting in additional tax revenue for BREC and other local taxing agencies, then we will look forward to receiving the additional revenue.”
McKnight’s statement comes amidst pushback from some in the business community as well as some members of the BREC finance committee and BREC Foundation board of directors. They have taken issue with the appeal not only because the BREC Commission did not vote on it but because the information on which the appeal was based appears to have come from the community organization Together Baton Rouge, which has also recently challenged Exxon’s property tax assessment.
Though BREC Commissioners did not vote on whether to exercise the appeal, the commission was briefed at its regular monthly meeting Sept. 19 on the administration’s decision to file the challenge. No commissioners questioned or objected to the move at that time.
At today’s Metro Council meeting, the council could vote on the appeal or defer it. If they deny the appeal, BREC can take its appeal to the Louisiana Tax Commission.
The council convenes at 4 p.m. on the third floor of City Hall, 222 St. Louis St. See the full agenda.
