By JIM BUTLER
Property owners are doing their annual grumbling as tax bills arrive (payment due by December 31) though most of the pain is self-inflicted.
Police Jury and School Board taxes are by a large margin levies approved by a majority of those voting in one election or another.
A great bit of the opposition voiced to the recently rejected Renaissance proposal was of the “enough taxes” tenor. So what is the property tax load?
First a reminder of how property is valued for property tax purposes.
Residential property is assessed at 10 percent of determined fair market value, commercial at 15 percent.
Homeowners living on a property as their primary residence get a $75,000 homestead exemption.
For instance, a residential property valued at $175,000 and with homestead exemption is factored at $100,000. The 10 percent figure on which property tax is paid is $10,000.
A business of $175,000 fair market value is assessed at $26,250.
Millage rates are the same for residential and commercial assessments. A mill is $1 per $1,000 assessment.
A mill tax on the above properties would yield $10 and $26.25 respectively.
Parish-wide property taxes in Rapides total about 50 mills. All but 13.33 (police jury state constitution, 6.06; school board state constitution 4.83; Red River Waterway, general alimony, 2.34) are voter-approved.
Using the above properties, the parish tax bills are $500 and $1,312.50 respectively.
The voter-passed taxes include senior citizen centers maintenance, 1.06; health unit maintenance, 1.06; coliseum maintenance, 1.00; coliseum debt service, 2.01; Renaissance, 2.06; library, 7.08; sheriff law enforcement district, 17.46; assessor, 2.10.
There are additional taxes, almost all voter-approved, depending on where property is.
Fire District millage ranges from 15.0 to 145.16; road maintenance from 5.56 to 93.23; drainage from 1.04 to 10.04; recreation from 5.0 to 15.0.
About 21 mills is levied parish-wide for schools and from 8.00 to 63.00 in school districts.
Additionally there are property taxes for various purposes in municipalities. Those levies are not subject to homestead exemption.
The Police Jury realized $29.6 million in property tax revenue in its most recent audit year. Of that 3.2 million could be used for general purposes; the remainder for specific dedicated purposes.
For comparison, the parish realized $3 million in sales tax collections available for general purposes and $5 million dedicated to specific uses.
According to the audit, property assessed at $57.6 million was tax abated under industrial development programs, resulting in tax collections foregone of $2 million.