Harahan cut its property tax Thursday night to avoid collecting an extra $15,559 in revenue amid slightly rising real estate values. The City Council voted 5-0 to reduce the tax from 15.81 mills to 15.62 mills for 2012. The decision came after Jefferson Parish Assessor Tom Capella determined the total value of taxable property in Harahan this year is...
Harahan cut its property tax Thursday night to avoid collecting an extra $15,559 in revenue amid slightly rising real estate values. The City Council voted 5-0 to reduce the tax from 15.81 mills to 15.62 mills for 2012.
The decision came after Jefferson Parish Assessor Tom Capella determined the total value of taxable property in Harahan this year is $78.5 million, up 1.3 percent from 2011. Were the City Council to retain the 15.81 mills, the maximum approved by voters, this year's revenue would run $15,559 higher, or $1.68 per resident.
Lawrence Landry
Reducing property taxes to avoid collecting such a windfall is required by state law. But local governments have the option, once they approve the reduction, of raising the tax to the maximum that voters have approved. Harahan officials chose not to do that.
"Everybody's taxes stay the same," Councilman Lawrence Landry said after the vote.