School Board gives its OK to sugar mill tax exemption

CENTERVILLE -- A request for an industrial tax exemption, the sort of request that has led to controversy in the past, sailed through the St. Mary School Board on Thursday.
Also at Thursday's School Board meeting, the district's new chief financial officer took the first steps toward asking voters for renewal of a 2021 sales tax dedicated to teacher and staff pay, a tax that generated its share of debate four years ago.
Former state Sen. Bret Allain of Franklin has figured on both conversations at one time or another.
Allain, president of the St. Mary Sugar Cooperative Inc., spoke to the board about the application for a tax break under the Louisiana Industrial Tax Exemption Program. The program offers relief from 80% of local property taxes for five years, with an option for five more, on new industry or expansion of existing enterprises.
The cooperative wants to buy a boiler system that will turn cane bagasse into steam to run the mill, Allain said.
Documents filed with Louisiana Economic Development say the proposed investment is about $18.4 million. It's expected to create three permanent jobs this year with a payroll of about $80,000, plus 40 construction jobs.
The mill operates on a small margin, Allain said, and requires volume to grow.
"There's no way we could pay the note and pay property taxes," he said.
The mill already pays about $864,000 in property taxes, according to the LED documents.
Those documents say the cooperative employs 100 people, and Allain said 200 work there during harvest season. The mill generates about about $180 million each year, 62% of which goes to farmers.
The cooperative runs one of 10 sugar mills in Louisiana, down from 300 when the cooperative began, and is the last farmer-owned mill in the state.
Two board members, Andrew Mancuso of Morgan City, and Chad Paradee of Berwick, recused themselves because their employer does business with the cooperative.
Mancuso said he supports the exemption program generally and this application in particular as a way to create "a fair business climate in our parish to compete with other parishes."
The ITEP request passed by a voice vote without objection.
Louisiana Economic Development has already OK'd the exemption. Now it's up to the State Bond Commission.
In 2021, an ITEP request from Metal Shark for a small, two-job expansion led to a debate over whether recipient companies were living up to their job creation obligations. The board voted to deny Metal Shark's request, only to learn later that the board missed a deadline. Metal Shark received the exemption.
Also Thursday, Chief Financial Officer Becky Voisin gave public notice that the School Board plans to call an Oct. 11 election on renewal of the 0.45% sales tax dedicated to teacher and staff pay.
The board decision to call the election would come at the regular April 10 meeting.
The original tax proposal in 2021 was for a 0.5% tax for teacher pay and to support a technology fund. Allain, then a state senator and a member of the State Bond Commission, objected to the inclusion of the technology dedication. The tax proposal approved by the board eliminated that provision and was lowered to 0.45%.
The tax now brings in $4.5 million-$5 million per year, Voisin said, mostly because the state has applied sales taxes to online sales.
The timeline calls for the renewal to be submitted to the State Bond Commission for approval April 15. The secretary of state's deadline for ballot propositions is June 11.

This story has been edited to correct the amount generated by the St. Mary Sugar Cooperative each year.