Property taxes are going up in St. Tammany Parish, although how much, remains to be seen.
Last month, roughly 15,000 unhappy homeowners appealed their assessments, angry over a rise in property taxes.

More than half of all property taxes in St Tammany – 51 percent – go to the school board, 19 percent goes to the 13 fire districts, 14 percent is controlled by parish government, and that includes the Coroner's Office, libraries, and the animal shelter, 8 percent goes to the sheriff's department, 4 percent to Mosquito Control, 2 percent to the Assessor's Office and 2 percent to the Florida Parishes Juvenile Detention Center.

The state constitution automatically rolls millages back.  So, when assessments go up, the millages go down, so taxing agencies get the same amount of money, and homeowner's taxes don't rise.  But those taxing agencies can then roll their millages forward and raise people's taxes, which happens often.

"We've just gotten into a habit of rolling millages up, and it's just not a good habit," said state Representative Tim Burns, adding it's his goal to be a fly in the ointment.  He wants to let the public know when taxing agencies are considering rolling millages forward. 

Burns says, "You're imposing a substantial amount of additional tax burden for a long period of time on citizens without their input or without their knowledge. So obviously, I think that is fundamentally wrong, and I do have a problem with that."

Some agencies have committed to not rolling millages forward, and therefore not raising taxes.  First on that list is the school board, but also the Assessor's Office and parish government. 

St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis adds, "My recommendation to all taxing bodies is that they roll back.  Certainly, with everything that's going on in the national economy, parish government, I'm cutting."

But that's not the case with every taxing agency.  The Florida Parishes Juvenile Detention Center voted to roll millages forward, and raise taxes.  So have two Fire Districts – District 3 in Lacombe, and District 12 in Covington.  And Chief Larry Hess of District 1 in Slidell, St. Tammany's largest Fire District, says his department will roll forward and raise taxes too.

Sheriff Jack Strain says his department hasn't made a decision yet on whether they'll leave their millage rolled back, or raise taxes and roll it forward.  He says he'll make that decision after the Louisiana Tax Commission officially certifies the parish tax rolls.

Meanwhile, Tim Burns says he hopes homeowners get more involved. "Public pressure, or public input, has an enormous influence on this process."

Burns says he's preparing a legislative package to fix property tax issues, to make taxing agencies give more notice before rolling up millages, and limiting the amount they can raise your tax.
He says it's important because homeowners in his parish, St. Tammany, already pay some of the highest property taxes in the south.