The Baton Rouge Area Chamber board of directors is requesting that local agencies—with the exception of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System—vote to roll back their property tax rates, thereby keeping agency revenues constant and providing tax relief to homeowners and businesses.
BRAC officials point to the financial distresses that the pandemic has wrought this year as to why agencies should hold off on increasing collections.
“A decade’s worth of regional job growth has been erased since the COVID-19 pandemic began earlier this year,” says Adam Knapp, president and CEO of BRAC, in a news release. “Twenty-four thousand East Baton Rouge Parish residents made a claim for unemployment insurance last week. Small business revenue is down. People are struggling financially; businesses are grabbing lifelines to stay afloat. Given this context, agencies considering the option to roll forward must demonstrate solid justification for doing so.”
During property tax reassessment years, based on higher valuations of property, tax millages are reduced to a level that generates the same amount of money as the previous year. A millage rate is the number of dollars of tax assessed for each $1,000 of property value.
Agencies that receive money from property taxes have the option to accept the new rate or to “roll forward” the millage to a higher rate, which is capped at the previously approved millage rate.
With the exception of the local school system, BRAC is urging agencies to wait until 2021 and reconsider then. The opportunity to roll forward is available until at least 2024, or the next reassessment. BRAC is making an exception for the school system because of increased costs due to COVID-19 school safety expenses and heightened sales tax revenue uncertainty.
Public hearings began earlier this month for agencies considering whether to roll back or roll forward their property tax rates. There will be a public hearing Thursday evening for BREC’s request to roll forward its rate.
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