NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The New Orleans City Council is asking the school board, sheriff’s office and other public entities to give property owners a break by not rolling their tax millages forward.
In a letter addressed to those agencies, the council wrote the average property value has increased by 23%, and as a result, their constituents are tapped out this reassessment year.
“Insurance rates have gone up dramatically,” Councilman Joe Giarrusso said. “Utility rates have gone up dramatically. All costs of living have gone up, and even though none of us control the assessment, whether that’s the council, the school board, or the sheriff, we can do our part by not rolling those millages forward.”
Some New Orleans homeowners say inflation and rising interest rates have made it difficult to stay afloat at times.
“It is a struggle for a lot of people because our checks don’t go up, but everything else does,” Deborah Massey, who owns a home in the Holy Cross neighborhood, said. “I mean, even in buying a house, it’s a struggle for a lot of people.”
Giarrusso is hoping the council will set the precedent.
“We want to get ahead of it, number one, and number two is we have a significant portion of the mileages,” Giarrusso explained. “I think the school board has a third, almost all the other taxing agencies have about a third, and the city has roughly a third, so as being the body that is responsible for so many of them, we want to start telling people, ‘Hey, this is where we’re headed. We’d like you to be on the same page.’”
Homeowners agree.
“I think we should wait a while before we increase the taxes just to give people a chance to get up on their feet a little bit, especially for us who are already have homes, it’s still hard,” Massey said.
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