To the Editor:

The parish president and council recently approved plans to ask St. John Parish voters to approve $29 million in bonds for miscellaneous Parish projects. This issue will be on an April 4 ballot. I urge voters to vote “no” to this bond request. The current property tax millage is generating substantially greater revenues than the millage was originally approved for and our property millage should be reduced. This excess property tax millage revenue is what parish leaders propose to use to pay back these bonds. I met with Assessor Whitney Joseph for over an hour discussing this issue last month. When a parish government entity comes to the voters asking for an increase in property taxes to raise monies for a project, they estimate how much monies they will need, and the Assessor’s office then advises how many mils of property tax would be required to generate the monies requested. If the voters approve the request, it is added to our property taxes. When the term of the millage is set to expire (most are 10 years or more), state law requires the governing body that requested the increase to reduce the millage if the monies it is now generating is more than originally requested. However, the law also allows the parish to “roll forward” the millage — in other words, keep it the same instead of reducing it. Other than the St. John Parish School Board’s reduction of a few mills last year, governing bodies rarely roll back tax millages.

The assessor’s office tells me that with the current properties on the tax rolls in St. John Parish, one (1) mill generates almost $300,000 per year. This continues to increase as more new businesses and homes are added to the tax rolls. If revenues from existing property tax millage is enough to pay back the proposed $29 million bond issue, it would mean that our property tax should be able to be reduced by 8-10 mills. I urge you to vote no on this issue and make the parish leaders first reduce our tax millage before asking for more money! It used to be that our Parish leaders would propose new property tax millages with the justification that “it won’t cost you anything”. That was true when homes were valued at $75,000 or less. The property tax exemption of $75,000 would result in no new taxes. However, can anyone find homes in St. John Parish that are valued at $75.000 or less anymore? Property taxes are continuing to increase. Those of you who are not yet seeing the increase, wait … wait, turn is coming soon. Assessor Joseph is not near complete in his increase of property taxes.

With the national economy in the sewer, and our country nearing bankruptcy because of government spending run amuck in Washington, with unemployment approaching 10 percent nationally (Ed. Note: It was 8.1 percent in February), and Louisiana’s budget shortfall for next year estimated to be over $1 billion, is now the time to ask St. John Parish voters to spend $29 million? I say no! Voter trust in parish government making wise use of our taxes is at an all time low and there are numerous examples about wasteful spending on the part of our parish government.

In closing, I urge voters to vote no on all proposals on the April 4 ballot, and force parish government to reduce our property tax millage by at least 5 mils and come back with a lower cost proposal A 5 mil tax reduction would reduce property taxes on a $200,000 home by about $62 per year, and about $38 per year on a $150,000 home.

A. J. Landry

LaPlace