Thursday, June 12, 2003
Local
tax assessors protest Louisiana's plan to deny homestead exemptions to
unmarried residential co-owners
A story published today in the Times Picayune reports that the Louisiana Tax Commission will shelve a slate of new policies on homestead exemptions.
The turnaround came one day after a group of local tax assessors gathered in Baton Rouge to protest the commission's proposed changes, including a provision that would have banned the $75,000 exemption for people who own a home together but are not married.
Commission Chairman Russell Gaspard said that after listening to the objections, the three-member board agreed the changes touched on "gray areas" in the law that need clarification, either through an attorney general's opinion or through changes to the state Constitution. So the commission decided in an executive session to put the initiative on hold.
The commission oversees parish assessors statewide and acts as an appeals court for disputes over assessments. Each year, it makes decisions that affect millions of dollars in parish tax revenue.
The commission had proposed several new rules regarding homestead exemptions, the most controversial of which would have prohibited unmarried homeowners living together from receiving the homestead exemption.
Gaspard said that change, plus others, were the direct result of two scathing reports issued by the legislative auditor this spring criticizing the Tax Commission's lack of policies and procedures and showing a wide disparity in the way assessors from 12 parishes calculated property values.
Nine of the 12 assessors audited issued exemptions to unmarried homeowners, including Orleans 3rd Municipal District Assessor Erroll Williams, the report shows. Williams said Wednesday that his office has been issuing those exemptions for 45 years, and plans to continue to do so until the law says otherwise. He also said unmarried people who own property together -- whatever their relationship -- should be treated equally under the law.
"The Constitution says the recipient has to be the owner and the occupant. It doesn't say you have to be married or what percentage ownership you have to have," Williams said. "Our argument is that it's not equal protection. The law ensures equal protection."
