By Adam Pedesclaux
Disgustingly, many large corporations in Louisiana pay less in taxes than many working people thanks to the Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP), which robs residents of millions of dollars of tax revenue every year. Worse, we workers bear the costs of the damages to our environment that many of these companies are responsible for.
ITEP has existed since 1936, and yet since 1995 alone, companies have been exempted from over $20 billion in taxes—all while virtually every service for the welfare of people has been slashed.
Responding to public outrage over this policy, in 2016 Gov. Edwards announced changes to ITEP through an executive order that allowed local governing bodies (like school boards) to weigh in on the decision to allow multi-million and multi-billion dollar companies to skip out on taxes or not.
Previously, these decisions were made solely by the undemocratically appointed members of the Board of Commerce and Industry. Members of this board include politicians as well the heads of banking, real estate, and oil and gas corporations.
Edwards’ 2016 reform should have been step one in stopping parasitic companies from stealing much needed resources from the people of Louisiana. Instead the corporate bosses have convinced their puppet Edwards to take a step back.
On February 24, the Board of Commerce and Industry adopted changes proposed by Edwards that would allow companies to appeal the denial of a tax exemption by a body such as a school board. This will enable the company to essentially override the input of the public. This comes after teachers’ unions and the community in East Baton Rouge organized to get ExxonMobil to withdraw a request for their annual $6.5 million tax break last year. The bosses do not want to repeat this.
We cannot afford to allow petrochemical and oil and gas companies to make Louisiana their dumping ground while they suck billions in profits out of the state every year! Louisiana companies should pay their taxes and stop stealing money from the hard working people of this state because our roads need fixing, schools need to be in the power of the public (not corporate/business entities), and residents need to be made whole for the damages that these companies have done their communities. We can start with the residents of Gordon Plaza who are demanding a fully funded relocation from the industrial dump site on which their homes are built!
We must fight against these thieving criminals that bribe the Louisiana government to cheat us out of a decent living. The government ought to be run in the interest of the majority of the people—in other words, workers. We, the workers who make all industry run, have to fight for our due.