The latest property assessments in New Orleans are significantly higher overall. That means higher property taxes.
But, that’s not the assessor’s fault. His job is to assess property. It’s the city’s, the school board’s, and other taxing entities’ job to minimize the impact of higher assessments. And guess what, doing that is easy!
The state constitution requires them to lower property tax rates, called millages, to make higher assessments revenue neutral. But, the constitution also allows them to raise those millages back up to their current levels, meaning even higher taxes.
The New Orleans City Council says it won’t change the required lower rates, and it’s asking other taxing bodies to do the same.
Like I said, that’s easy. All the taxing bodies have to do is … nothing.
Most public bodies should be good at that.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.