BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. John Bel Edwards is changing the rules for a lucrative property tax break program for manufacturing facilities, to tie the tax breaks to job creation and retention.
New and expanding manufacturing facilities are allowed, under the state constitution, an exemption from paying local property taxes for up to 10 years through the Industrial Tax Exemption Program.
The Board of Commerce and Industry and the governor must sign off on the exemptions. But that often is just seen as a rubber stamp, rather than a true review of the applications, with millions in tax breaks approved monthly.
Edwards announced Friday that he'll add more scrutiny to the process and bring in local government agencies that stand to lose tax revenue to help make decisions on tax break requests.
