$1,000 tax hike = gentrification

Mayor Cantrell, KEEP millage rates rolled back!!!!

We need to fix the flooding of the streets, and by corollary, the entire Sewerage and Water Board, yet a drastic, massive stealth increase in property taxes on the middle class will cause more harm than good. No amount of investment in city services will make a difference if the core of the homeowning working class cannot afford to pay as much as an extra $1,000 per year, but LaToya Cantrell does not seem to understand.

In the last month, thousands of property owners, many in historically Black neighborhoods saw the assessed value of their parcels drastically increase, due to gentrification and homestay investment in similar properties. Homes that have been owned by the same family, sometimes for generations, will see property taxes skyrocket and as a result may prove unaffordable for the inhabitants. Together New Orleans, an umbrella organization for various religious and civic groups, estimates that almost 2,000 households will see their taxes go up by more than $1,000 next year.

Thankfully, due to a constitutional amendment pushed by New Orleans Assessor Errol Williams through the legislature, the higher taxes on assessments that increase a property’s value by more than 50 percent, will be phased in over four years for almost 5,200 families. Still, that eventually amounts to a total increase of more than $1,000 per year due to this year’s citywide reassessment. In fact, some neighborhoods will see tax increases that represent more than four percent of the average median income of the residents living there. That’s way too much for most middle-income homeowners to afford. They may be forced to move from their family homes due to tax hikes for which they never voted.

It doesn’t have to be this way, though. All that Mayor Cantrell and New Orleans City Council, as well as the other municipal and parochial taxing authorities, have to do is nothing. Literally Nothing. State law requires that as properties are reassessed, millage rates must automatically be rolled back so as to maintain a consistent stream of revenue. The whole idea of the IQ Ticket, i.e. properly assessing values of homes, was that, as a result, the overall tax rate would go down in Orleans Parish.

Doing nothing would mean as the overall tax rate decreases, the assessment increase on these historic properties would be cushioned by a lower overall tax bill. The city would collect the same amount of revenue, but the jump in taxes on these properties could be a fourth of the expected amount.

However, Mayor Cantrell has indicated that she might wish to roll the millages forward again. She has that power. It was a policy for which she consistently voted as a councilperson during the Landrieu Administration, to increase revenue, and can occur again by a supermajority of the New Orleans City Council and the mayor’s signature.

It’s easy to sympathize with the mayor’s contention in the wake of the flooding last week that extra tax dollars are needed to repair the Sewerage and Water infrastructure of the Crescent City. Nevertheless, such a tax increase should not be done without a public vote. Perhaps a better method exists to raise the infrastructure dollars. If higher property taxes are the only answer, should not New Orleans’ struggling middle class have a chance to decide at the ballot box?

Similar decisions to trust the public need to be made by the Orleans Parish School Board and other municipal taxing authorities.

The electorate should always have the final say on taxes. They know when a property tax needs to be raised or renewed. They see both the flooding of their streets and know whether property taxes are too high for them to afford to live in the city.

This article originally published in the September 2, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.