Changes afoot to relax ITEP requirements... being pushed by JBE

So, he only needed the locals to have this control until he got re-elected.


I’m glad it is reverting back to what it was to a degree but letting the EBR school board piss and moan about exemptions for Exxon was a fricking disgrace.

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If the state was worth half of a shite, they wouldn't need an ITEP program. But with the likes of Texas next door... Do what has to be done to compete.

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Agreed... it's just a cover for our crappy tax system we have here in LA.

I really wish more people (myself included) got more involved in local politics. Look at this bird for example, how many are local issues? 1?

You start making localities business friendly/conservative, a lot of these issues we now see will start to go away

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The school boards don’t even understand public sector economics or basic accounting AFAIK.

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Certainly that's correct.

Now, do you think LaToya or Broome do? Look at the Metro Council or NOLA City Council... you think any of them understand any of that stuff?

Yet, they vote on union contracts, incentives, budgets, tax plans, pay raises, etc.

I guess my point is... I don't understand why we are singleing out school boards here.

Texas has similar, if not better incentive programs in place. They don’t look the same because Louisiana’s entire tax system is so f-ed up, it has to look different. And I’ve had to correct OP before, it is a tax deferment, not a lifetime tax exemption.

Honor Choade knows he botched it shooting from the hip, I have doubts about his ability to get the Genie back in the bottle. The little Kingdom of EBR has enjoyed getting to cuff Exxon around, they will fight any attempts to take away that power as best they know how...by playing the race card, early and often.

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And I’ve had to correct OP before, it is a tax deferment, not a lifetime tax exemption.

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Tell me where I have eve said it was a "lifetime tax exemption".

I've never used those words, because it's not.

Nothing is "lifetime" in tax law... it can always be changed.

The exemption is for a period of time. Over time, the value of the item being exempted depreciates, thus, the value of the exemption goes down as well. The exemption means a lot more in year 1 than it does in year 8.

By the time the exemption runs out, there isn't much value left to tax.

How desperate is St Bernard for either new jobs or to keep existing ones?

IIRC, they got their asses kicked by Katrina and never quite recovered.

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How desperate is St Bernard for either new jobs or to keep existing ones?

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Where the desperation is, is that they are still trying to protect the same size area with 20,000 less residents paying taxes. Also, there are a lot of post-Katrina improvements that now need repairs and they don't have the money for it.

So it's being billed locally as, hey, we can either raise everyone's property taxes, or, we can just deny some of these exemptions.

The people in power have cut some spending, but the result is much less service for things like cutting grass and fixing drainage issues.

We should get rid of ITEP and the Homestead Exemption AND lower the millage to keep collections the same for one year. Voters could then vote for new millages and they would have much smaller millages than we have today to fund the same revenue streams.

This would add BILLIONS of dollars to the tax base and lower property tax rates tremendously. I suspect in many areas of the state homeowners would actually see their tax go down.

We should get rid of a lot of income tax exemptions too while holding total dollars collected the same.

One of, if not the biggest problem with our tax system is the number of exemptions and exceptions in our income tax code and our property tax system.

Everybody should pay tax and every politician should work to see the government is small and the essential functions are properly funded. Who wants a museum when police protection is lacking?