Board OKs tax breaks on $500 million in projects

• By GARY PERILLOUX
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Feb 27, 2008 - Page: 1D

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The Louisiana Board of Commerce and Industry meets six times annually to review applications for tax breaks from qualifying businesses. More than 100 new applications representing about $520 million in capital investment and 2,700 new permanent jobs were approved at the board’s Tuesday meeting.

Here are some of the significant Baton Rouge regional and statewide incentives granted:

QUALITY JOBS INCENTIVES (provides payroll and sales tax rebates to businesses paying at least $14.50 an hour in wages and health benefits to new employees)

• AppOne Inc., a Baton Rouge Internet-based company creating 24 new jobs to a total of 40 and making a capital investment of $1 million; $754,000 in payroll rebates over 10 years and $15,000 sales tax rebate.
• Intralox LLC, a subsidiary of Harahan-based Laitram Inc., a food equipment manufacturing creating 50 jobs for a total of 857, adding a $13.5 million capital expansion and $1.8 million in new payroll; $2.98 million in payroll rebates over 10 years and $630,000 in sales tax rebates.
• Intralox LLC, a related new Hammond conveyor belt manufacturing facility, creating 36 permanent jobs and an eventual 176 jobs by 2017, with a $25 million capital investment; $2.08 million in payroll tax benefits and $1.63 million in sales tax rebates.
• JELD-WEN Inc., an Oregon-based manufacturer building an $84 million door facings factory and creating 75 new jobs in Winn Parish; $960,000 in payroll tax benefits and $2.7 million in sales tax rebates.

ENTERPRISE ZONE INCENTIVES (provides Louisiana income or franchise tax breaks if 35 percent of new employees come from disadvantaged backgrounds (typically, they were on some form of public assistance, lacked educational or training skills, lived in a designated Enterprise Zone within the state or were physically challenged)

• Cabela’s Retail LA LLC, a new Gonzales retail store with a $58 million capital investment and 300 jobs (120 of them full-time jobs qualifying for incentives); $525,000 in investment tax credits and $300,000 in job tax credits.
• Dermatology and Aesthetic Institute LLC, a Baton Rouge medical office with a capital investment of $2.7 million creating 20 new permanent jobs; $62,400 in tax rebates and $50,000 in job tax credits.
• Dupre Transport LLC, an expanding Baton Rouge truck terminal investing $1.5 million and creating 10 net new jobs for a total of 90 permanent jobs; $22,500 in sales tax rebates and $25,000 in job tax credits.
• Elmer Candy Corp., a Ponchatoula food manufacturer investing $13.3 million and creating 14 new permanent jobs; $603,000 in sales tax rebates and $35,000 in job tax credits.
• Intralox LLC, a $9.1 million manufacturing investment in a Harahan conveyor facility and 10 jobs; $419,000 sales tax rebate and $25,000 job tax credit.
• PAI Trucking LLC, a Lafayette Parish company investing $3.5 million in equipment and machinery at a Scott concrete-mix facility and creating 25 permanent new jobs for a total of 74; $62,500 in job tax credits.
• Port Aggregates Inc., a Lafayette Parish concrete plant operator investing $3 million in a new Scott facility and creating six new jobs; $46,000 in sales tax rebates and $15,000 in job tax credits.
• Red Stick Armature Works Inc., a West Feliciana Parish business investing $1.9 million to upgrade an electric motor sales and service facility and creating 13 new jobs for a total of 42; $57,000 in sales tax rebates and $47,500 in job tax credits.

INDUSTRIAL EXEMPTION INCENTIVES (lowers local property taxes, for manufacturers only, on building projects and expansions, but not land, for up to 10 years)

• BASF Corp., an Ascension Parish chemical manufacturer investing $31.9 million in a new akylethanolamines plant; $2.6 million in reduced property taxes.
• CF Industries, an Ascension Parish manufacturer of agricultural fertilizers, investing $3.56 million in an ammonia instrumentation retrofit; $288,000 in reduced property taxes.
• ConocoPhillips Co., investing $16 million in dock, shore-side tie-in and marine vapor control system improvements in Westlake in Calcasieu Parish; $22,000 in reduced property taxes.
• Dow Hydrocarbons & Resources Inc., investing $22.4 million in brine ponds and equipment in Assumption Parish; $2.83 million in reduced property taxes.
• Elmer Candy Corp., $11.3 million in eligible costs for a Ponchatoula plant automation; $51,000 in reduced property taxes.
• Union Carbide Corp., a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co., investing $25.3 million to expand an existing alkanolamines facility in St. Charles Parish; $3.1 million in reduced property taxes.
• Venice Energy Services, investing $42.8 million to repair a processing plant damaged by Hurricane Katrina (with $35.5 million spent on labor and engineering); $108,000 in reduced property taxes.