NEW ORLEANS – 4 Investigates has found that two public figures are getting tax breaks that violate the law in St. Tammany Parish.
The findings caused the assessor in St. Tammany to change her policy on homestead exemptions.
Louisiana law says you don’t have to pay taxes on the first $75,000 in value of the home where you live. Each property owner or married couple is allowed just one of those exemptions regardless of how many properties they own in the state.
4 Investigates found that former Kenner city councilman Nick Baroni, who served eight and a half months in federal prison for defrauding the Navy, got two homestead exemptions in 2008 and 2009.
In addition, Sheriff Jack Stephens, who is a tax collector in St. Bernard, and his former wife Desiree Melerine-Stephens got two homestead exemptions in 2008.
Stephens already was claiming a homestead exemption on his house in Shell Beach when his wife at the time bought a home in Mandeville in 2007.
“I was assured by Desiree that there had been no application for the homestead exemption,” he said.
St. Tammany Assessor Patrica Schwarz Core said she couldn’t find an application form for a homestead exemption for Melerine-Stephens’ home.
“I did not have a homestead exemption form on hand when we looked for it when you called,” she told Eyewitness News.
Core said it has been her policy to allow the buyer of a home to essentially inherit the homestead exemption from the previous owner, only for the tax year when they buy the home, if the deed indicates the new owner will be getting his or her mail at that address.”
But Schwarz-Core said that after that first year, when the new owner bought the home, he is supposed to fill out a form to apply for a homestead exemption.
Core says the Stephens never filled out that form, but the homestead exemption stayed in place.
“That was our courtesy to a taxpayer to do it for them,” she said. “Normally most people do come in and file the homestead exemption.”
Core admitted that extending the homestead exemption another year was a mistake.
The homestead exemption that Desiree and Jack Stephens received on their Mandeville home cut their tax bill by close to $1,100 a year.
The homestead exemption law says a homeowner has to fill out a form making a sworn statement that he "currently owns and occupies the homestead…."
Core's web site has just such a form for property owners to fill it out and submit to her office.
Core said she wrote a change order removing the homestead exemption on the Stephens house after Eyewitness News requested records on the tax break and her field crew found this house empty.
The illegal tax break was going to two people you would expect to know the law about all this.
“I never saw any of the tax bills because in the normal course of my business, I wouldn’t,” said Jack Stephens. “It wasn’t my business. It was solely owned and individually owned by my wife and she handled the paperwork on that.”
Core said Stephens and his ex-wife will be ordered to pay back taxes they should have paid for when the assessor gave them and exemption they did not deserve.
Stephens said he plans to pay it all back.
“I mean this is a mistake and no one, let me reiterate that, no one should gain financially from the honest mistake of a public official. This has to be corrected.”
Baroni, the convicted felon who served 19 years on the Kenner City Council, already had a homestead exemption on a house on Bayou Savage drive in Kenner when he and his wife bought a house in Mandeville in 2007.
Core says this was another case where her office allowed the homestead exemption to stay in place in 2008 and 2009 even though the couple didn't apply for it.
“This was our mistake,” said Core. “It was not Mr. Baroni’s mistake. He did not apply for the homestead exemption, so therefore he was not doing something wrong.”
Not only is Baroni's Mandeville house vacant, but court records reveal it's also being foreclosed on.
Again in this case, the tax break deprived the people of St. Tammany of revenue they should have been getting.
When Eyewitness News asked Jefferson Parish Assessor Lawrence Chehardy about Baroni's homestead exemption, his investigation revealed that Baroni no longer lives in his Kenner house.
Chehardy says he sent the Baronis this letter telling them he has removed their homestead exemption. Despite phone calls and internet searches, we have been unable to find Baroni to ask him for comment.
Core says she can't find him either, but that the sheriff will try to locate him and get the money that is owed or Mr. Baroni’s home would be sold at a tax sale.
Core said she had never heard of Baroni before Eyewitness News asked about him and did not know Sheriff Stephens.
She said these weren't friends, and this wasn't special treatment.
“I didn’t give special treatment to anybody,” she emphasized. “I’m here to uphold the law.”
She said these cases of dual homestead exemptions across parish lines demonstrate Louisiana needs a statewide tracking system to police these tax breaks.
And she admits dual homestead exemptions within the parish are also a problem.
Core said she is searching for an answer as to what happened.
As a result of the Eyewitness News investigation, Core said she has changed her policies.
From now on, when a property changes hands, she says the homestead exemption goes away and the new owner has to apply immediately to get it back.
