The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry’s 2023 strategic plan makes for interesting reading, especially when one compares its component parts to each other.
It decries our state’s loss of population and presents in-depth discussions of education and tax policy as key factors in turning this around. It states that the workforce has been ranked as the most important factor by CEOs in determining site selection and cites Louisiana’s low ranking in this regard (48th). It specifies $3,204 per year as our lag behind the Southern average in teacher salaries (We're $12,700 below the national average according to this newspaper).
Yet when it comes to tax policy, there is a curious inconsistency. Yes, the report correctly highlights the complexity of our tax system and repeatedly emphasizes the need for its “streamlining.” This is applied to the Industrial Tax Exemption Program — which exempts 80% of the property taxes that pay for schools.
Has it occurred to LABI and the governor that one effective way of “streamlining” the process would be to remove school boards from the program entirely? Given the high priority business places on workforce development, this would seem an obvious solution. It would free the funds that taxpayers themselves have voted for education to be used for that purpose.
I believe that ITEP has a legitimate place in Louisiana’s economic development, especially for attracting new green energy projects. But education is not that place.
DAVID LINDENFELD
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