Louisiana voters will soon decide on 10 constitutional amendments during the upcoming election, with five of them focused on property taxes that could affect seniors, military families, and local governments.
Jefferson Parish Tax Assessor Thomas Capella said Amendments 6 and 9, which focus on senior citizens, strike him as some of the most important.
“Currently, if you’re 65 to 68 and you qualify for the senior citizen freeze, and this amendment passes, your homestead exemption goes from $75,000 to $135,000,” Capella said.
Amendment 6 would increase the exemption amount for senior citizens as they age. Amendment 9 would allow senior citizens with an annual income of $150,000 to qualify for the exemption, raising the current income cap from $100,000.
“It’s obviously a benefit for our senior citizens,” Capella said. “Our seniors have given enough, especially ones that are kind of middle-income people, and this break would help them. Obviously, government can always do a little bit less, but when you put money back into people’s pockets, they spend it on other things and you get your taxes that way.”
Amendment 1 addresses property tax exemptions for spouses of disabled military veterans. If passed, it would allow surviving spouses to retain their exemption even if they move to another home after the veteran’s death. This benefit is already available to spouses of firefighters, paramedics, and police officers in Jefferson Parish.
However, not everyone supports the measure.
“Obviously we’re big fans and champions and deeply grateful for the sacrifices of our veterans and their families, and there’s a lot of things that we can and should do as a state, as a country to support them,” Daniel Erspamer, CEO of the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, said during a virtual webinar put on by the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana last week. “Our position is that just shouldn’t happen through the tax code.”
Capella said Amendment 2 might be the hardest to understand. If passed, it could change how property taxes are calculated. Local governments could increase property taxes as home values rise, rather than remaining fixed until another vote occurs.
“You don’t want to increase property taxes without a vote of the people,” Capella said.
Some argue Amendment 2 could benefit taxpayers and local governments.
“It gives them some flexibility and it does remove an incentive, kind of a weird incentive local governments to actually raise taxes when they don’t need the revenue just ’cause they want to hold on to the taxing authority voters already gave them,” said Barry Erwin, chief policy officer at Leaders for a Better Louisiana, during the virtual webinar.
Amendment 10 focuses on property tax exemptions for formerly blighted properties. If passed, owners who rehabilitate those buildings would qualify for exemptions.
Early voting begins Oct. 20, and Election Day is Nov. 3.
READ MORE:Seniors, military families property taxes put to vote in Louisiana
