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Board approves Gulf Island LLC ITEP exemption request despite objections from two members
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Summary
The finance committee recommended, and the board approved, honoring Gulf Island LLC's ITEP contract 20200178-ITE without penalty. Board members Matthew Ford and Roger Dale DeHart objected, warning a retroactive exemption could set a precedent.
The Terrebonne Parish School Board accepted a finance committee recommendation on Dec. 2 to honor Gulf Island LLC's Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP) contract 20200178-ITE without penalty.
Cohen Guidry, introduced at the meeting as representing the applicant, addressed the committee about the request. "We want the exemption," an applicant representative said during remarks to the committee. In debate, board member Matthew Ford said he has "never been a fan of the ITEP exemptions" and opposed retroactive exceptions, arguing the board should not make exceptions for entities that did not meet contract contingencies. Roger Dale DeHart raised similar concerns about contractual binding and the risk of creating a precedent for future requests.
The committee motion to grant Gulf Island's request was moved and seconded; the recommendation passed with two recorded objections by Ford and DeHart. The transcript records the contract identifier as "20200178DashITE" and shows the motion passed "with the exception of 2 objections." The motion did not include a recorded roll-call or a numeric vote tally in the transcript.
Board members expressed both sympathy for the company's cited hardships (including effects from COVID and Hurricane Ida) and concern about honoring contracts that may not have met original terms. The board did not specify additional conditions or monitoring for future retroactive exemption requests at the meeting.
