[MarignyBywater] Sign petition to increase Homestead Exemption

[Gibbs, Melissa]

I respectfully offer a differing opinion and would encourage you all to
do some research before taking a position on this. I am against an
increase in the homestead exemption and in fact, I think we should
eliminate it altogether rather than increase it. I believe we must
instead continue to push for accurate property value assessments to
ensure that each property owner is paying his/her/its fair share rather
than have the property tax burden shouldered disproportionally by so few
property owners. If we all paid our fair share, the burden on each would
be lessened and we'd have more money to spend to improve Louisiana.
There IS a connection b/t the homestead exemption and the deplorable
state of Louisiana schools, for example. Things are improving,
thankfully, due to a variety of recent reforms, and ending the sacred
cow of the homestead exemption is another reform we should consider.
Again, just offering a respectful differing opinion.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: marignybywater-bounces at marigny.org
[mailto:marignybywater-bounces at marigny.org] On Behalf Of Drunah Drunah
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 10:05 AM
To: marignybywater at marigny.org
Subject: [MarignyBywater] Sign petition to increase Homestead Exemption

 

I'm not sure how many of you have signed this, but with the insurance
increases faced by property owners this year, especially with Fair Plan
doing a 7% increase, everything continues to go up. I encourage all of
you that live in Louisiana to sign this. 

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/lahomeex/petition.html



Thousands sign petition asking for homestead exemption to be raised
by Ed Anderson, The Times-Picayune
Thursday January 22, 2009, 9:00 AM

BATON ROUGE -- Almost 22,000 Louisiana residents have signed an
electronic petition launched last month to urge lawmakers to increase
the homestead exemption, the author of the petition said Wednesday.

Joshua Kahler, who is affiliated with a New Orleans real estate firm,
said about 2,000 people a day are going online to sign their names,
urging legislators to increase the tax-exempt portion of a home from
$75,000 to at least $160,000.

Under existing law, a homeowner is not taxed on the first $75,000 of a
home's value but must pay property taxes on 10 percent of the assessed
value of the property over that level, based on various millages for
local governmental bodies.

Kahler said as the national recession deepens and individuals are having
to dig deeper to pay property taxes, the first $170,000 of a home's
value should be exempt from taxes.

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, the petition -- at
www.PetitionOnline.com/lahomeex/petition.html -- had 21,836 electronic
signatures.

Kahler said he hopes to get 100,000 names on the petition by the time
the annual legislative session opens April 27 at noon. He said he
launched the petition drive during "Christmas week as a glorified
letter" to the Legislature and hoped to gather 10,000 names by the time
the session started.

In less than a month, he said, he doubled his original projections and
feels 100,000 signatures is "totally achievable."

State law does not allow citizens to put issues on the ballot for a
vote, but Kahler said he wants to gather enough names as a show of
sentiment by a large segment of the population.

The petition states that the "benefits of the homestead exemption and
the need to increase it for inflation have never been more important.
Homeowner taxes continue to increase as property values increase while
the amount of the exemption remains fixed" and unchanged from the
$75,000 level since 1980. "If adjusted for inflation alone, the
homestead exemption today would be more than $160,000, according to the
petition.

The petition states that lower tax rates make home ownership more
affordable and make the state "more attractive to new businesses and . .
. easier for existing businesses to remain open."

The petition calls on lawmakers to pass legislation to exempt the first
$170,000 "or an amount reflecting the actual rate of inflation" at the
time the measure is adopted, whichever figure is greater. It also calls
for "mandatory adjustment of the homestead exemption against inflation
every four years."

Jefferson Parish Assessor Lawrence Chehardy said he gave Kahler
permission to use some of the assessor's letters about the need to raise
the exemption. "I think it is wonderful," Chehardy said of the drive. He
said the assessors hope to use the petition to help pass legislation to
raise the exemption.

Legislation increasing homeowner tax breaks traditionally draw the
opposition of local school board officials, business lobbyists and
groups such as the Public Affairs Research Council and the Council for a
Better Louisiana, both statewide issues-oriented research organizations.

Schools and other local government operations depend on property taxes
for much of their financing.

Increasing the tax break on homes, "shifts the burden to renters and
business, and business is already paying about 80 percent of the
property taxes now," PAR President Jim Brandt said.

CABL President Barry Erwin agreed: "This just redistributes the tax
burden. It means somebody else pays. We already have one of the highest
homestead exemptions in the entire country."

. . . . . . .

Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson at timespicayune.com or
225.342.5810. 
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/thousands_sign_petition_askin
g.html
<http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/thousands_sign_petition_aski
ng.html> 

 

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