If ITEP is Louisiana's famous tax break — the one with a state database, a fixed percentage, and decades of public argument — the PILOT is its quieter cousin. Fewer rules. Less paperwork in public view. And, done a certain way, a bigger break than ITEP could ever grant.
PILOT stands for Payment In Lieu Of Taxes. The name says it plainly: instead of paying property taxes the normal way, a company pays a negotiated amount — sometimes more than nothing, usually less than the full bill — under a contract with a local public body.
Louisiana law — the industrial development board statutes, La. R.S. 51:1151 and following — lets parishes and municipalities create nonprofit public corporations whose whole purpose is financing industrial projects. Here's the standard play, step by step:
When bonds are involved, the deal generally needs sign-off from the State Bond Commission, whose monthly agendas are public and are one of the best early-warning systems for PILOT deals anywhere in the state.
| ITEP | PILOT | |
|---|---|---|
| Who grants it | State Board of Commerce & Industry + governor, with a parish board hearing | Local industrial development board and parish bodies |
| How much | Fixed by rule: up to 80% off, up to 10 years | Whatever's negotiated — can exceed or undercut ITEP |
| How long | 5 years + 5-year renewal | Any term the contract sets — can run decades |
| Where to find it | State's FastLane database | Local minutes, lease agreements, Bond Commission agendas |
| Public's role | Parish board public hearing required | Whatever local process the bodies choose to hold |
The practical difference: ITEP is a program with statewide rules you can look up. A PILOT is a contract, and every one is different. That cuts both ways. A well-negotiated PILOT can deliver a community-guaranteed payment on day one — something ITEP's exemption never does. A badly negotiated one can quietly give away more than ITEP ever could, for longer, with fewer people noticing.
Two live projects put PILOTs on the local map.
First, the Applied Digital data center project near Boyce — the $3.6 billion Delta Forge campus — is taking the PILOT route rather than ITEP. Its deal runs through the England Authority, which, in February 2026, created a special subdistrict around the 672-acre site that Applied Digital had bought that December. Under an early term sheet, the company's payments fall over time — starting near $27.4 million and dropping to about $19.4 million by year 25, KALB found in a review of the documents. A declining schedule on a growing facility is exactly the kind of thing the checklist below is built to catch.
Second, the proposed Sunstripe Solar project — 10,356 acres near Hineston — hasn't declared its intentions. But the Rapides Parish Police Jury anticipated the question: Section 26-13 of the parish's Solar Farm Ordinance reserves the jury's right to accept, reject, or modify any ITEP request — and then states, in the same breath, that the ordinance \"does not limit the use of a PILOT.\" The door is open. As of mid-July, no ITEP filing for the project appears in the state database, which makes the PILOT question a live one.
When a PILOT lands on a local agenda — and one eventually will — these are the questions that separate a good deal from an expensive one. We'll be asking them; you can too.
PILOTs rarely announce themselves. They surface in: industrial development board and police jury agendas and minutes (Kingfish archives Rapides Parish's here); State Bond Commission monthly agendas; and the conveyance records at the clerk of court, where the title transfers and leases that make the structure work have to be recorded. If you see a public board suddenly \"acquiring\" an industrial property, it will never operate — that's usually not a purchase. That's a PILOT being born.
", "date_published": "2026-07-22T13:18:00.000Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-22T13:18:00.000Z", "authors": [ { "name": "Bentley Hensel", "url": "https://kingfish.la/author/bentley" } ], "tags": [ "Explainers", "Taxes", "PILOT" ], "image": "https://media.kingfish.la/2026/07/what-is-a-pilot.png", "_license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" } ] }