C&I board approves tax breaks

Significant capital expansions and other improvements planned for the local petrochemical and oil and gas sectors are the lion’s share of more than $1.6 billion in investment coming to the state.

On Tuesday, the Louisiana Commerce and Industry Board approved property tax exemptions to some $1.6 billion in capital projects. The Industrial Tax Exemption program provides a five-year property tax exemption on equipment and other capital improvements made to a manufacturing site that becomes operational.

One of the biggest projects is a slate of expansions and other improvements at Shintech Louisiana LLC, a petrochemical plant in West Baton Rouge and Iberville parishes where some $1.2 billion in investment is planned, according to agenda documents from the C&I board meeting. The Shintech projects are expected to produce 50 jobs with more than $187.2 million in ad valorem taxes waived.

Altogether, the 111 projects granted property tax exemptions are expected to create 670 jobs with $244.7 million in property taxes exempted.

In other business, the C&I Board approved six projects to participate in the Quality Jobs incentive program, which provides salary rebates over 10 years and sales and use tax credits. The projects total $434.9 million in investment and are expected to create a reported 1,012 jobs with $35.2 million in incentives.

Forty-one projects were approved by the C&I Board for the Enterprise Zone incentive program, which can provide tax credits for new jobs created as well as sales and use tax rebates or investment tax credits. The projects total $315.7 million in investment, creating an estimated 871 new jobs and $8.3 million in incentives.

Nine projects, all of them in Orleans Parish, were approved to participate in the state’s Restoration Tax Abatement program, which provides property tax relief for five years on the rehabilitation of an existing structure. The projects represent an investment of $28.6 million, creating an estimated 92 new jobs.