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St. Mary Economic Development Director Evan Boudreaux, left, and Parish President David Hanagriff speak Thursday to the School Board about a pending tax exemption application

The Review/Bill Decker

School Board, parish president go another round over a tax exemption

CENTERVILLE — The St. Mary Parish School Board heard about another request for an industrial tax exemption Thursday, the sort of request that has caused recent friction between the board and the parish president.
The School Board wasn’t asked to say yes or no to the exemption under the rules it has adopted. But members managed to get in a few shots anyway.
Parish President Da-vid Hanagriff and St. Mary Economic Development Director Evan Boudreaux told the School Board that Orion Engineered Carbons, a carbon black operation in the Glencoe area, has applied for a break from property taxes, including School Board taxes, under the Louisiana Industrial Tax Exemption Program.
The expansion, which will allow the company to meet Environmental Protection Agency anti-pollution rules, would create four direct jobs with a payroll of $350,000 and three indirect jobs, according to an economic analysis from One Acadiana, the multiparish economic development organization.
The $68.2 million capital investment boosts the estimated economic impact to $33 million, according to the analysis.
Orion would get an 80% exemption from local property taxes for nine years.
Local jurisdictions would receive $2.1 mil-lion in property taxes as a result of the expansion over the nine years, while the exemption frees Orion from $8.4 million in tax liability.
The program offers exemptions for up to 10 years, but Boudreaux said Orion submitted its project plans one year in advance, not the two years that the program requires.
The missed deadline drew some comments from the board. Members voted to deny Metal Shark an exemption for a two-job, $70,000-payroll exemption last year, but Metal Shark got the exemption because the School Board missed a 30-day deadline.
Board member Ginger Griffin asked how much the Orion exemption would cost the School Board. The answer from Boudreaux: $3 million over the life of the ex-emption.
But the $3 million isn’t money that the board receives now and then loses, Hanagriff argued.
“The School Board isn’t losing anything,” Hanagriff said. “It’s gaining.”
“I don’t agree,” Griffin said.
Hanagriff noted that since Metal Shark received its exemption, the shipbuilder has added 20 new employees.
That drew a response from board member Wayne Deslatte: “Did the exemption create 20 new jobs?”
Board member Michael Taylor asked Boudreaux whether Orion could be required to hire people only from St. Mary Parish. Boudreaux said that isn’t possible.
Taylor said Hanagriff was pursuing the exemptions with the same “dogged determination” with which the parish presi-dent opposed the School Board’s 0.45% sales tax for teacher and staff raises in 2020.
Hanagriff said he’s moved on from the sales tax controversy and hopes the School Board will, too.
Until 2016, decisions about industrial tax exemptions were made by the Louisiana Board of Commerce and Indus-try. Then the rules were changed to give affected local jurisdictions the power to say yes or no.
As a way to cut red tape, Hanagriff received authority from the relevant local governments in St. Mary to make exemption decisions on their behalf, as long as an economic analysis showed a positive impact. He told local government s that the need to go before multiple local councils might discourage potential employers.
Since the Metal Shark debate, the School Board has twice voted down attempts to reclaim the ability to approve exemptions. Both attempts failed by a single vote.

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