TNO Discovers Big Underpayment of Corporate Property Taxes

FOLGERS COFFEE COULD OWE NEW ORLEANS MORE THAN $1M

The Folgers Coffee Co. may need to cough up well over $1 million in back property taxes to the city after exemptions for its manufacturing plants in New Orleans East were recently scrapped by the state.

The state Board of Commerce and Industry, which grants exemptions under the state Industrial Tax Exemption Program, or ITEP, in October rejected Folgers’ late application to renew two exemptions it received for those plants in 2012.

No one from Folgers or its parent company, the Ohio-based J.M. Smucker Co., appeared at that time to make the case in person for the board to consider Folgers' application after the deadline, board members said. And in February, when a company official did show up to appeal the denial, members declined to hear the appeal.

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