National Report Touts Together Louisiana Organizing, Says “ITEP Reforms Constitute Racial Justice”

Data Show Black and Brown Communities in “Cancer Alley” Harmed Most by History of Corporate Welfare Have Benefitted from ITEP Reforms

Together Louisiana’s organizing to reform Louisiana’s infamous Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP) is featured in a new report by the national organization Good Jobs First. The report, “Reparative Tax Policy: Racial Justice on the Line in Louisiana,” says “Just as ITEP disproportionately harmed Black and Brown families in Cancer Alley, the ITEP reforms have a reparative effect.”

The report finds that “more than $282 million in new revenue is flowing each year to Louisiana public services. School districts are the biggest beneficiaries – and especially those Cancer Alley public schools where 74% of students are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color).”

The authors feature Together Louisiana’s organizing effort to reform ITEP, which culminated in 2016 when Gov. John Bel Edwards signed an Executive Order giving local school districts, sheriff departments, parishes and cities, for the first time in 80 years, the authority to determine for themselves whether to approve industrial tax exemptions and on what terms.

“Winning ITEP reforms to give locals a say and end corporate handouts is one of the most significant grassroots-led policy changes in Louisiana history,” said Dr. Theron Jackson, a leader with Together Louisiana. “As our state continues to slip in national rankings for poverty, healthcare, and education, we literally cannot afford to let corporations take hundreds of millions of dollars from our public services.”

Since ITEP reforms were instituted, Together Louisiana has continued advocating for corporations to pay their fair shares. The report points to Together Louisiana’s “strategic fights,” including when, in 2018, East Baton Rouge teachers voted 445 to 6 to walk out if the school board approved an ITEP deal for ExxonMobil and its ongoing, protracted battle with Folger’s Coffee Company to pay the some $13.4 million it owes New Orleans. Folgers is currently suing to get out of its tax obligation. 

Read the full report here. Read Good Jobs First’s press release here.