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LABI urges voters to support Constitutional Amendment No. 1, which clarifies long-standing practice whereby raw materials and goods stored and destined for the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico were not subject to the inventory tax – similar to goods in interstate commerce. Louisiana’s offshore activity has a $73 billion impact on the state’s economy, supporting more than 250,000 jobs. Some local officials have recently sought to tax goods headed offshore, which will likely lead to lengthy and costly litigation or force oil and gas companies to move the materials and send the work to other Gulf Coast states.

This Amendment will help the oil and gas service sector in Louisiana remain competitive with neighboring states at a critical time for the industry, which has lost tens of thousands of jobs in the recent downturn. The Advocate editorial board recently endorsed Constitutional Amendment No. 1, noting “The major energy companies can’t do anything about the price of oil, but they might well, in a time of lowered profits, react unfavorably to new tax burdens. We urge voters to approve this amendment…”

LABI urges voters to support Constitutional Amendment No. 2, which makes a minor change to allow more schools and educational programs to access public dollars in the Education Excellence Fund. These investment earnings from the tobacco settlement are dedicated to public education, and the Amendment would add THRIVE Academy, the Louisiana Educational Television Authority, and lab schools operated by public colleges to the list of schools eligible for funding. The total estimated distribution to these schools is $190,228 of a total of roughly $15.6 million. The bill passed the Legislature unanimously, and LABI agrees that public funding should be available for an array of school models and choices.

LABI urges voters to support Constitutional Amendment No. 3, which seeks to allow more tax disputes to go before the Board of Tax Appeals and avoid costly, lengthy litigation. Currently, the Board of Tax Appeals exists as an optional trial court, and an estimated 99 percent of tax cases are filed with the Board because most litigants prefer judges with expertise in tax law to oversee the case. When there is a constitutional question today, however, the case must be transferred to district court and later sent back to the Board of Tax Appeals for trial on the underlying issues. This cumbersome transfer is administratively burdensome and can leave the matter in limbo for years, so this Amendment would permit the Board of Tax Appeals to hear the entire case before it including any constitutional considerations with the fallback plan to appeal the decision to state courts.

The last amendment on the ballot is about letting Orleans Parish exempt more property from property tax. That is the very LAST thing we should be doing anywhere in the tax. We need lower millages not fewer people paying property taxes. Exempting some from property tax just makes the remaining tax payers pay more as the debt these taxes service do not change just because fewer people are paying tax.