ST. TAMMANY, La. -- The annual financial audit of the St. Tammany Assessor's Office has made two findings that grow out of a series 4 Investigates reports from earlier this year.
The first finding addresses the issue of multiple homestead exemptions. Eyewitness News revealed that some prominent public officials, including St. Bernard Sheriff Jack Stephens and his then-wife Desiree, and former state Sen. Tom Schedler, now a first assistant with the secretary of state, had homestead exemptions in St. Tammany they didn't deserve.
Schedler had two over a four year period. He said St. Tammany was deprived of tax revenue during that time.
“And all I can say is if I had been aware of it earlier, it would have rectified,” Schedler said.
Core said those and other undeserved exemptions Eyewitness News revealed were the fault of her office.
“That was an error, that was an error that we made by not removing the homestead,” Core said in an earlier report.
The auditor saidchange orders on 12 property tax bills led to the recovery of more than $14,000. The auditor blamed "... a weakness in internal controls of the (assessor's) office regarding the assessment of residential property in the parish."
In her response, Core said she has changed a policy of allowing exemption to stay in place when a house is sold. Now new homeowners must apply for homesteads.
She said she inherited the policy that led to problems from her predecessor in 1993.
“The fact that she’s left these policies in place for 17 years that have resulted in inequities with respect to the assessment and collection of taxes in her parish are inexcusable,” said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission. “I applaud the fact that she’s made changes to prevent that from occurring. But what we still don’t know is how many other cases are there that fall into these two categories that haven’t been discovered yet.”
The auditor's second finding addresses the issue of property owners getting a hugely discounted tax rate called "use value" when they don't deserve it. Use value is intended for agricultural, timber, horticultural and marsh land.
Instead of paying $25,000 in taxes on 37 acres, you might pay as little as $60. 4 Investigates revealed an industrial park owned in part by state Sen. Jack Donahue was incorrectly getting the discounted use value rate.
This condo complex was getting the use value rate too. Core said her office didn't know about either, partly because she didn't get building permits on the developments from the parish.
“We are not to police land use. The assessors do not police land use. We do not go out and inspect land use. That is not part of our job. It is up to the land owner to give us correct information and truthful information about the property when they apply for land use,” Core said.
The auditor said incorrect use value assessments led to the recovery of more than $100,000, and she said she has changed her policy to require more documentation.
Goyeneche said such steps are overdue.
“There's all kinds of new technology where you can actually go on a computer and use satellite technology from your computer to see if there's any, any buildings that have been erected on these things, so she doesn’t even have to leave her office,” he said. Core told the auditor that she has also set up a meeting with St. Tammany's Department of Permits to make sure her office gets building permits she complains she has not gotten for years.
“And it's unfortunate that it took your series of stories to get the two sides to sit at the same table and resolve what has apparently been some long standing miscommunication issues between their respective organizations,” Goyeneche said.
Goyeneche said he believes Core now has a sense of urgency about resolving such problems. In his words, "her political future depends on how she addresses these issues.”
Goyeneche said it incenses those who are paying their fair share to see inequities involving public servants, and some people in a position to own apartment complexes and industrial parks.
