Unconditional tax breaks and federal bailout for a million $ industry
26th February 2024 · 0 Comments
Barely two months on the job, and Governor Jeff Landry is already giving away property tax income. It would be wonderful if the tax breaks were given to Louisiana families. But no. Landry moved at warped speed in giving unconditional tax cuts for those who can afford to pay taxes.
Sounds familiar? What was Trump’s first significant action before his Oval Office chair got cold? He gave a $2-trillion tax cut to the wealthy, many of whom owned lucrative businesses.
It’s been said that a corporation is a person. If that’s the case, only the rich are being enriched on the backs of middle-class and low-income people.
If actions speak louder than words, Governor Landry is flashing his MAGA Republican credentials and showing himself to be a Trump loyalist. Which begs the question, is Landry vying to be Trump’s vice-presidential running mate?
Probably not. Why would Landry give up ruling the state’s GOP trifecta of power?
Not only is Landry handing out big tax breaks, but if a company invests in large industrial projects in Louisiana, it doesn’t have to commit to hiring to get the tax break. The company won’t need approval from local taxing authorities if the governor favors its proposal.
Last Wednesday, Landry signed an executive order that trashed the Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP) requirement that mandates job creation in exchange for tax breaks.
“This program is about capital investment. It is not about job creation,” Landry said, according to the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report.
How rich is it that Landry signed the executive order at a Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) luncheon? LABI is a right-leaning business organization with PACs in the north, south, east, and west of Louisiana.
The business coalition not only takes an active role in issues that shape and define the state economy, but its PACs recruit and support candidates that will promote free enterprise. LABI encourages its members to lobby the state legislature to sponsor pro-business bills.
Under ITEP, eligible manufacturers are offered an 80-percent property tax abatement for up to 10 years on new investments and capitalized additions. The program is designed to incentivize companies to invest in Louisiana.
Landry’s executive order doesn’t alter the 80-percent decrease, but it does remove rules requiring participating businesses to prove they will create and retain local jobs.
Landry’s new order also takes local governments’ power to approve tax breaks independently with a separate public hearing.
Landry’s executive action calls for a single parish industrial board, which includes representatives from the taxing agencies, to consider ITEP applications. Its vote would apply to all local agencies that receive property taxes, meaning companies would get approval for a total tax break or none, the Louisiana Illuminator reported.
On the other hand, Landry is sticking his palms out for money from the federal government to bail out the crawfish industry. Another financial gift and bail out of an industry?
Landry estimates that the Louisiana Crawfish Industry generates $425 billion annually. The governor sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack seeking federal assistance to address the recent drought affecting the domestic crawfish industry and making prices skyrocket. This request would expand the Emergency Livestock Assistance Program to include drought as a cause of loss for farm-raised fish (including crawfish).
The summer drought and cold winter temperatures have impacted the production of this year’s crawfish crop.
The “average boiled crawfish price is around $13 per pound, more than double the price per pound of boiled crawfish that week in 2023.” Live crawfish will cost you around $10 per pound, said Laney King, co-founder of The Crawfish App.
King told BR Proud the supply of crawfish and the number of vendors selling crawfish is steadily increasing. But prices are still high.
With such high prices, it is no wonder Landry is looking to bail out the crawfish industry. Who can afford crawfish, given high homeowners insurance and car insurance costs, escalating rent, high utility bills, and high property taxes?
Vendors will be left holding the bag if the crawfish cost doesn’t fall.
It is rich however that Landry is sticking his palms out for money from the federal government to bail out the crawfish industry. It was just last week that he refused the feds money that would have provided meals for 600,000 children of this state.
This article originally published in the February 26, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
