LA School District Says No To Continuing $3 Million Tax Break To ExxonMobil, Prompting Biz Freakout

[hatrack]

BATON ROUGE, La. — It was a squabble over $2.9 million in property-tax breaks — small change for Exxon Mobil, a company that measures its earnings by the billions. But when the East Baton Rouge Parish school board rejected the energy giant’s rather routine request last month, the “no” vote went off like a bomb in a state where obeisance to the oil, gas and chemical industries is the norm.

The local chamber of commerce took out a full-page newspaper ad, warning of a rise of “radicalism.” The head of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry wrote that “the anti-business crowd has had their fun,” but needed to “cool their jets.” And now, somewhat surprisingly, business-friendly Louisiana finds that it is the latest flash point in a roiling, community-by-community debate that pits liberals and local activists against defenders of the lavish tax incentives offered to woo big business.

It has been a David vs. Goliath story in the Louisiana capital, where a grass-roots coalition of black and white churches, activists and ordinary citizens have successfully clamored to democratize a system that used to dole out billions in property-tax breaks without giving the local school boards, city councils and other government entities that depend on those taxes any say in the matter.

The vote has also revived a vexing, and defining, Louisiana question about the deference a perennially impoverished state must show to big business. “We’ve allowed the oil and gas industry to hijack our democracy,” said Russel L. Honoré, a retired Army lieutenant general who earned acclaim for leading the military response to Hurricane Katrina, and who had urged the East Baton Rouge Parish school board to reject the exemptions. “The industry will brag about it all the time, how well we’re doing in terms of business development. Well, if we’re doing so well, why are we the second-poorest state?”

EDIT

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/05/us/louisiana-itep-exxon-mobil.html

[Dead_Parrot]

1. Ohh...

FFS.

[Dead_Parrot]

2. Although +10 points for "Vexing". n/t

[GitRDun]

3. This is the key to reversing the decades long slide into national, state and local bankruptcy.

There is no more blood to be extracted from regular folks.

The party needs to be over for those who can afford to pay.

If not, they'll eventually be operating in a 3rd world country.

[northoftheborder]

4. It's about time. Good on those folks standing up to

Big Oil.