Sheriff, Port of South LA face lawsuit over $4M tax waiver for failed grain terminal

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The Port of South Louisiana and St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff Mike Tregre are facing a lawsuit that alleges they illegally forgave millions of dollars in taxes owed for a now-defunct grain terminal project.

The Descendants Project, an advocacy organization for the progeny of Black slaves in the River Parishes, filed the suit Monday in the 40th Judicial District Court in Edgard claiming the port and the sheriff violated a section of the Louisiana Constitution that prohibits the state or any political subdivisions from loaning or donating anything of value to any person, association or corporation.

In this case, one of the things of value was a $4 million payment in lieu of property taxes (PILOT) that Greenfield LLC, a company that planned to build a $400 million industrial grain terminal in St. John Parish, was supposed to pay to Tregre’s office through a complex tax agreement. However, the sheriff failed to collect the PILOT fee and eventually forgave the debt, the lawsuit claims.

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In April 2022, Greenfield struck an agreement with the port and Tregre offering to transfer ownership of a tract of land to the port and provide the sheriff an initial $4 million PILOT for the first year and then $2 million per year beginning in 2025. Additionally, the port was supposed to collect a $300,000 administrative fee from Greenfield and allow the company to “lease” the land. At the end of the lease, the port would then give the land back to Greenfield in exchange for $1.

This would have allowed Greenfield to avoid paying property taxes on the 248-acre site of the massive grain terminal near the small majority-Black community of Wallace, Louisiana.

The Descendants Project’s lawsuit claims Greenfield would have avoided roughly $200 million in taxes over the length of its lease. The company eventually abandoned the project without paying the fees, and the sheriff and the port eventually forgave the payments, according to the lawsuit.

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The Port of South Louisiana denied the allegations in a brief statement Monday afternoon.

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The Descendants Project has been involved in litigation over different aspects of the formerly proposed grain terminal for the last two years. When news of the PILOT agreement first broke back in 2022, the Descendants Project challenged the company’s building permits at the local and federal levels.

The group, cofounded by twin sisters Joy and Jo Banner, filed a federal lawsuit against St. John the Baptist Parish in November 2022, challenging a parish zoning ordinance that allowed industry to build on what was once a residential area.

The Banner sisters testified before the United Nations that year about the risk industrial expansion poses to unmarked slave burial sites in their community. Wallace, with a population of 755 and covering an area of just 6.4 square miles, is virtually surrounded by heavy industry. Just across the river is the third largest oil refinery in the nation. More petrochemical plants can be found nearby in Reserve and LaPlace.

Industry reports claimed the St. John grain terminal project would have been the largest of its kind built in the U.S. in four decades.

Greenfield announced in August 2024 that it was abandoning the project. The company blamed local opposition and federal permitting delays for its demise.

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