Louisiana Residents Sue Parish Bodies Over SpaceX Tax Deal Approval

Three Vermilion Parish residents and a newly formed nonprofit have sued parish officials, alleging that the approval of SpaceX's property-tax agreement for its planned Starbase Louisiana site violated the state's open meetings law. The suit was filed Monday in the 15th Judicial District Court.

The defendants are the Vermilion Parish Police Jury and the parish Industrial Development Board, not SpaceX. The plaintiffs' lawyer, William Most, said: "It's not suing SpaceX. It's not saying the spaceport can't move forward. What it's saying is that the law was broken."

The petition lists eight alleged violations over four meetings in July and August, including votes on items not on the agenda and notices that referred to the project only by its code name, "Project Osprey." The plaintiffs ask the court to void the board's Aug. 25 approval of the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement, which exempts the site from local property taxes in exchange for $25 million a year to local taxing bodies.

Police Jury President Chad Vallo referred questions to the jury's attorney, who had not responded when The Current reported the filing. None of the allegations has been tested in court.

Sources: AP; The Current; KLFY.