Ascension Parish public bodies mull streamlined process in new tax exemption rules – The Advocate

DONALDSONVILLE The Ascension Parish School Board, Sheriff's Office and Parish Council will be voting, for the first time, on a request for an exemption from property taxes by a manufacturer looking to build in the parish.

Since last June, manufacturers seeking industrial tax exemptions in Louisiana must first get the approval of the major taxing bodies where the new facility would be built.

The non-profit Ascension Economic Development Corp., which works to bring new business to the parish, is trying to find a way to streamline that process.

"We don't want to do this on a project-by-project basis," Kate MacArthur, president and chief executive officer of the AEDC told Ascension Parish School Board members Tuesday.

MacArthur said a parish-wide task force will be working to create a standard resolution that meets the wishes of the taxing bodies and can be used uniformly for requests for industrial tax exemptions.

But, in the meantime, the AEDCis working with four manufacturers who had begun their plans to build in Ascension Parish before the governor's executive order a year ago, but are nevertheless required to follow the new regulations.

The first is a manufacturer, whose name public officials have not disclosed at the company's request. It plans to build an $11 million container-manufacturing facility in Geismar that would employ 28 local workers.

The business, a 100-year-old company, would like to be in production by September, MacArthur said.

Before Gov. John Bel Edward's executive order in June 2016 changed the way large manufacturers get exemptions from paying local property taxes, the industrial tax exemptions were automatically approved and were the same across the state.

Now, a request for a property tax exemption requires the approval of the Sheriff, School Board and parish government as well as municipalities if applicable before the manufacturer can take their request to the state Board of Commerce and Industry.

The major taxing bodies in a parish can now choose to set a manufacturer's exemption from property taxes at a lower level than the allowed maximum up to 100 percent tax abatement for five years, with a potential renewal at up to 80 percent for three years.

Previously, all exemptions were 100 percent of local property taxes for two, consecutive five-year terms.

Detailed regulations for the governor's executive order are expected later this summer, MacArthur said, adding that manufacturers have, however, been abiding by the executive order since last June.

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After four decades of automatically approving applications to exempt large manufacturers fro

"There is going to be a matrix that comes from the task force, to create a general resolution" that the local taxing bodies can use for industrial tax exemption requests in the future, Superintendent David Alexander told board members Tuesday.

But before that, the School Board will vote on the tax exemption request from the proposed Geismar container manufacturer at its meeting on June 6.

The resolution, if approved, would provide an exemption from property tax at 100 percent for five years, and at 80 percent for three years.

MacArthur said she has brought the information on the container manufacturer to the Sheriff's Office and will present the information to the Ascension Parish Council at its meeting next week.

MacArthur told School Board members Tuesday that the new process for granting property tax exemptions to manufacturers also introduces a new level of competition.

Taxing bodies in one parish may choose to permit a lesser tax exemption; those in a nearby parish may grant the full tax break allowed, MacArthur said.

"It's not just competing with Texas or Georgia," MacArthur said this week. "Now we're competing with every other parish."

"We're all competing with our neighbors," she said.

Follow Ellyn Couvillion on Twitter, @EllynCouvillion.

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Ascension Parish public bodies mull streamlined process in new tax exemption rules - The Advocate