Putting the property tax issue into perspective

Nov. 11
November 11, 2009
Ms. Mae Ella Marie Carlos
November 13, 2009
Nov. 11
November 11, 2009
Ms. Mae Ella Marie Carlos
November 13, 2009

New data recently released by the Tax Foundation reconfirms the fact that the residential property tax burden in Louisiana is the lowest in the nation. The Tax Foundation is recognized as an unbiased source of the most accurate and up-to-date tax information in America.


The foundation recently released results of its study of the three-year average (2006-08) of residential property taxes in U.S. counties with populations of 20,000 or more.


Not surprisingly, the highest residential property tax burdens were in counties in New York and New Jersey. The high property tax burden in those states – coupled with excessively high income taxes – is resulting in families moving to lower tax regions. The Tax Foundation measured the property tax burden in three categories: median real estate taxes paid; median real estate tax as a percentage of median home value; and median real estate tax as a percentage of homeowner income.

The bottom 10 “counties” listed for median real estate taxes paid were not counties but “parishes.” They all were in Louisiana. Lowest was Franklin Parish ($117) followed by: Allen Parish at $119; Vernon and Avoyelles at $120; Richland at $122; Sabine at $124; Webster at $125; Jefferson Davis and Evangeline at $127; and De Soto at $129. The national median for real estate taxes paid was $1854.


The bottom 10 “counties” for median real estate taxes as a percentage of median home value once again were all in Louisiana. St. Bernard and St. John Parishes were the lowest in the nation with a 0.11 percent ratio between the amount of property tax paid to the value of homes. Tangipahoa was next at 0.12 percent followed by Lafourche, Assumption, St. James, West Baton Rouge, Avoyelles and Terrebonne at 0.14 percent. Livingston Parish was next at 0.15 percent. The national median was 0.96 percent.


The bottom 10 “counties” in the category of median real estate taxes as a percentage of home owner income were again all in the Bayou State. Vernon Parish was lowest in the nation at 0.25 percent of homeowner income expended on paying property taxes. Next in line were: Vermilion, Allen and Evangeline at 0.25 percent; Beauregard and Webster at 0.27; and Jefferson Davis, De Soto, St. John the Baptist and Lafourche at 0.28 percent. The national median was 2.85 percent.

In fact, Louisiana parishes go far beyond occupying the bottom 10 in all of these rankings. In the category of property taxes paid, Louisiana parishes occupy 27 of the bottom 30 spots in the nation. When measured as a percentage of home value, Louisiana parishes occupied 25 of the bottom 30 spots. And when measuring property taxes as a percentage of income, Louisiana parishes held 29 of the bottom 30 positions.

No matter how it is measured, residential property taxes in Louisiana are the lowest – by far! – in the nation. No other state is even remotely close. One of the leading contributors to that designation is the presence of the highest homestead exemption in the nation at $75,000.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that every property tax payer in Louisiana is getting such a bargain.

The fact that so much residential property value is removed from the rolls means that other property tax payers – especially businesses – are paying higher real estate taxes to offset the low residential collections.

Almost every year there is legislation introduced in the Legislature to increase Louisiana’s homestead exemption and to freeze residential assessments, legislation that would make businesses pay even more of the property tax burden.

The data recently released by the Tax Foundation clearly illustrates the absurdity of those attempts.