Why Amendment 4 Is a Harder Call for Lafayette Than Almost Any Other Louisiana Parish

LAFAYETTE, La. — Louisiana voters go to the polls Saturday on five constitutional amendments, and one of them lands differently in Lafayette than it does almost anywhere else in the state. Amendment 4 would allow parishes to reduce or eliminate the local property tax on business inventory, a levy Louisiana has collected since the 1800s.

Lafayette’s leadership supports it. The business community supports it. The problem is the price tag.

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What Amendment 4 Actually Does

Louisiana is one of only nine states that still taxes business inventory. That means goods, equipment, and materials businesses keep on hand (cereal on a grocery store shelf, an excavator parked at a job site) are all subject to a property tax assessment. Car dealerships tend to be among the heaviest payers in most parishes.

The tax has been a reform target for decades. Since 1991, the state has reimbursed businesses for most of what they pay in inventory taxes through income tax credits, up to 100% for smaller payers, 75% for larger ones. That arrangement kept parish revenue flowing while softening the blow for businesses. But it also means Louisiana has been writing off more than $400 million a year in state tax losses without actually fixing the problem.

Amendment 4 does not eliminate the inventory tax statewide. It removes the constitutional ban on parishes offering exemptions. If it passes, each parish could reduce or eliminate the tax on its own terms, but only if the sheriff, school board, and parish governing authority all agree to do it.

Lafayette’s Problem: The State’s Offer Doesn’t Cover the Bill

For most parishes in Louisiana, opting out of the inventory tax would be a clean trade. The state offers a one-time payout of up to $15 million for parishes that eliminate the tax immediately, or up to $10 million for those that phase it out over five years. For a parish collecting $3 or $4 million a year in inventory taxes, that math works fine.

Lafayette is not like most parishes.

The Current reports Lafayette collected roughly $28 million in inventory taxes in 2025. The state’s payout is capped at $15 million total, split among every property tax beneficiary in the parish. That money is supposed to bridge three years of lost revenue. Lafayette collects nearly twice the cap in a single year.

Lafayette Assessor Justin Centanni has not sugarcoated it.

“For 45 parishes, this decision is a no-brainer. We are not one of those,” he said ahead of the prior version of this proposition in 2025.

Centanni’s own office budget would absorb about $500,000 in losses. But the bigger concern runs deeper. The inventory tax makes up roughly 10% of all property tax revenues collected across Lafayette Parish.

What It Means for Lafayette Schools, and Everyone Else

The Lafayette Parish School System is the largest collector of inventory tax revenue in the parish, taking in just under $10 million a year. That is roughly 3% of the school system’s total operating budget.

LPSS has been working through budget shortfalls and is still dealing with the fallout from a recent state audit. Losing another $10 million, even phased over several years, means more cuts somewhere.

“It will not be easy, removing $27 million across our government budgets,” Lafayette Mayor-President Monique Boulet said at her 2025 State of the Parish address. “We will be working with our partnering agencies, with our legislators, and the governor’s office to find the right guidance of timing and funding that can make this happen as soon as possible.”

The parish government is the second-largest inventory tax collector in Lafayette. The sheriff’s office is also affected. Spread across every property millage in the parish, a gap this size touches nearly every branch of local government.

The Business Case for Ending It

Supporters of Amendment 4 argue the tax is already costing Lafayette before anyone votes to eliminate it. Companies in western Louisiana store equipment across the state line in Texas specifically to avoid inventory tax exposure. Louisiana Association of Business & Industry president Will Green calls it a barrier to competitiveness. Centanni calls the behavior it produces a “distortion of the market.”

Centanni believes Lafayette’s growing tax base can absorb the loss over time. Property values in the parish have risen steadily, and major incoming commercial taxpayers like the forthcoming Buc-ee’s development could help close the gap in the long run. Getting back to pre-elimination revenue levels would take years, though, and local government costs are not waiting around.

“For me, it’s not if we eliminate the tax,” Centanni said. “It’s how we eliminate it.”

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What Happens Saturday and What Happens After

A yes vote on Saturday does not end the inventory tax in Lafayette Parish. It gives the state constitutional authority for parishes to do so. The real negotiation happens after that, with the school board, sheriff’s office, and parish council each needing to sign off on any local action.

Boulet and other parish leaders have publicly backed the amendment. The business community is on board. But signing off on an idea is different from managing a $28 million annual revenue hole on a $15 million bridge. Lafayette’s local officials will face that question regardless of what happens Saturday.

Polls open at 7 a.m. on May 16.