Lafayette Parish leaders briefed on inventory-tax choice, deadline and fiscal trade-offs

A Lafayette Parish board member told fellow officials the parish will soon face a decision about whether to keep a local inventory (ad valorem) tax after a state-level change that will end a long-standing inventory-tax credit in July 2026.

Mandy, president and CEO of an economic-development organization working with Lafayette Parish, told the meeting that the inventory tax “is imposed at the local level,” and outlined options for the parish and the fiscal consequences of each choice.

The discussion centered on three choices: keep the inventory tax in place, immediately eliminate it, or phase it out over time. Under the constitutional amendment language being advanced in the legislature (referred to at the meeting as House Bill 7), the parish’s school board, the parish government and the sheriff must all agree unanimously for Lafayette Parish to eliminate or phase out the tax. The presenters said that decision must be made before July 2026 for local governments to receive state transition incentives.

Officials presented the parish’s inventory-tax revenue and distribution. Lafayette…