Ascension Council splits the difference on property tax rates for 2017 – The Advocate

GONZALES The Ascension Parish Council took another stab Thursday at "rolling forward" property tax rates for parish government after the state Legislative Auditor's Office refused to certify those rates last year.

However parish officials only took a partial step toward recouping what they missed out on last year due to the state's action.

The state auditor's finding last year, which stemmed from a procedural error still being fought about in court, meant that for the first time since at least 2010, millage rates for parish government were not at the levels that they had been in the prior year.

That meant parish homeowners and businesses got a small, unexpected tax break last year if their property tax assessments also didn't increase during the 2016 reassessment year.

Depending where one lived or owned a business and what special taxing districts applied to them, property tax rates for parish government in 2016 were between 1 mill to a little more than 2.3 mills below what they had been in 2015.

That equated to a savings of $12.50 to $28.75 on the tax bill for a $200,000 home with homestead exemption.

But, with a few members airing concerns this week about appearing to raise taxes after last year's unanticipated break, the council agreed to roll some tax rates forward but held others back to the lower adjusted rates in place in 2016.

Still, even with all the maneuvering, residents will pay a slightly higher combined rate in 2017 than they did in 2016, though still lower than what parish officials had consistently kept the combined millage rates in 2015 and several years prior.

Depending where homeowners live, the parish government collected between 19 mills and a bit more than 39 mills overall in 2016 but will collect between 19.29 and 40.68 mills in 2017. Overall, residents in Ascension pay an average of 115 mills to all local governments, levee districts and other entities.

In reassessment years, local government must reset tax rates to a new adjusted maximum millage rate that accounts for changing values on the tax rolls. When values are on the rise, as they typically are each year in growing parishes like Ascension, the adjusted rates are generally lower than the year before but are also set so they generate the same revenue as the year before.

Once local governments adopt the adjusted tax rates in a reassessment year, often known as "rolling back," they can then vote to "roll forward" tax rates back to the prior year's maximum, netting a windfall of additional revenue.

That windfall didn't happen in 2016 due to problems the Legislative Auditor's Office found in the way the parish provided public notice for two meetings the council held last year on the millage rates.

In an interview Wednesday before the council vote, Parish Council Chairman Bill Dawson said that because of the parish's failure to roll forward in 2016, if the Parish Council would vote to roll forward all parish millage rates for 2017, the council could be seen as raising rates at a time when the residents are still recovering from the flood.

That circumstance cast the roll forward procedure, which usually happens with not much debate, in "a different light," Dawson said.

Councilman Randy Clouatre, whose St. Amant district was hit hard in the August flood, made that point again Thursday when he said he was in favor of "any help we can give to the taxpayer."

So it went Thursday as council members agreed in a series of votes to keep millage rates for parish operations, the parish library system, East Ascension drainage, and road lighting districts in parts of Gonzales and Donaldsonville at the lower rates residents and homeowners unexpectedly paid in 2016.

But the council also agreed to raise tax rates to the old 2015 levels, or roll forward, for a variety of special parish taxing districts, including for firefighters in Prairieville, the Council on Aging, the parish's mental health and other parish health programs, and juvenile detention.

Millage rates for West Ascension drainage, a West Ascension utility district and road lighting districts in Sorrento and Modeste were unchanged between 2016 and 2017.

During public comment Thursday night in Gonzales before the votes, several residents and agency heads argued in favor of rolling forward millage rates for the parish's health, community and fire service operations but other residents spoke against rolling forward millage rates for East Ascension drainage and the library system.

Parish resident Chase Melancon said the parish has a $40 million surplus in its drainage fund but is two years behind on fulfilling drainage requests from the public. He also called into question the need for the library to gain additional revenue when it is building a $3.1 million expansion of its branch in Galvez that he considered unnecessary.

"I can't fathom why anybody would think we need to put more money in that fund when we can't utilize what we have," Melancon told the council about the drainage millage rate.

The drainage surplus is primarily made up funds set aside for major, long-term projects. Parish officials recently acknowledged the two-year backlog on clearing minor drainage ditches, as they pitched the need for nearly two dozen more personnel to do the added work.

With some library officials in attendance, Melancon's comments to keep the library rates lower did not draw a response Thursday night.

The Ascension Parish Library board had already told the Parish Council recently not to roll forward their property tax rates "in light of the burden and impact of the floods on the citizens and parish of Ascension." The vote preserved a savings of 0.21 mills home and property owners received in 2016 and cost the libraries about $246,000 in 2017.

The lower millage rate amounted to a continued savings of $2.63 on the tax bill for a $200,000 house with homestead exemption.

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Ascension Council splits the difference on property tax rates for 2017 - The Advocate